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.

Deployment note: Feature availability differs between self-managed, ECH, and Serverless. See Deployment Compatibility for details.

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

Item	Description
Elasticsearch URL	Cluster endpoint (e.g. https://localhost:9200 or a Cloud deployment URL)
Kibana URL	Required only when setting Kibana feature/space privileges
Authentication	Valid credentials (see the elasticsearch-authn skill)
Cluster privileges	manage_security is required for user and role management operations

Prompt the user for any missing values.

Decomposing Access Requests

When the user describes access in natural language (e.g. "create a user that has read-only access to logs-*"), break the request into discrete tasks before executing. Follow this workflow:

Step 1 — Identify the components

Extract from the prompt:

Component	Question to answer
Who	New native user, existing user, or external realm user (LDAP, SAML, etc.)
What	Which indices, data streams, or Kibana features
Access level	Read, write, manage, or a specific set of privileges
Scope	All documents/fields, or restricted by region, department, sensitivity?
Kibana?	Does the request mention any Kibana feature (dashboards, Discover, etc.)
Deployment?	Self-managed, ECH, or Serverless? Serverless has a different user model.

Step 2 — Check for existing roles

Before creating a new role, check if an existing role already grants the required access:

curl "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role" <auth_flags>

If a matching role exists, skip role creation and reuse it.

Step 3 — Create the role (if needed)

Derive a role name and display name from the request. Use the Elasticsearch API for pure index/cluster roles. Use the Kibana API if Kibana features are involved (see Choosing the right API).

Step 4 — Create or update the user

Scenario	Action
New native user	Create the user with the role and a strong generated password. (Self-managed / ECH only.)
Existing native user	Fetch current roles, append the new role, update the user with the full array. (Self-managed / ECH only.)
External realm user	Create a role mapping that matches the user's realm attributes to the role. (Self-managed / ECH only.)
Serverless user	Use the cloud-access-management skill. Assign a predefined role or create a custom role first, then assign it via the Cloud API.

Example decomposition

Prompt: "Create a user analyst with read-only access to logs-* and metrics-* and view dashboards in Kibana."

1. Identify: new user analyst, indices logs-*/metrics-*, dashboards, read access.
2. Check roles: GET /_security/role — no match.
3. Create role via Kibana API (dashboards involved): logs-metrics-dashboard-viewer.
4. Create user: POST /_security/user/analyst with roles: ["logs-metrics-dashboard-viewer"].

Confirm each step with the user if the request is ambiguous.

Manage Native Users

Native user management applies to self-managed and ECH deployments. On Serverless, users are managed at the organization level — skip this section.

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. This is the default — no Kibana endpoint is required.

Use the Kibana role API (PUT /api/security/role/{name}) when the role includes any Kibana feature or space privileges. The Elasticsearch API cannot set Kibana feature grants, space scoping, or base privileges, so if the user mentions Kibana features like Discover, Dashboards, Maps, Visualize, Canvas, or any other Kibana application, the Kibana API is required.

If the Kibana endpoint is not available or API key authentication to Kibana fails, fall back to the Elasticsearch API for the cluster and indices portion and warn the user that Kibana privileges could not be set. Prompt for a Kibana URL or alternative credentials before giving up.

Create or update a role (Elasticsearch API)

Default choice when the role has only index and cluster privileges:

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)

Required when the role includes Kibana feature or space privileges:

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": ["*"]
      }
    ]
  }'

Get, list, and delete roles

curl "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role/${ROLE_NAME}" <auth_flags>
curl "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role" <auth_flags>
curl -X DELETE "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role/${ROLE_NAME}" <auth_flags>

Document-Level and Field-Level Security

Roles can restrict access at the document and field level within an index, going beyond index-level privileges.

Field-level security (FLS)

Restrict which fields a role can see. Use grant to whitelist or except to blacklist fields:

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"]
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

Users with this role see all fields except the PII fields. FLS is enforced on search, get, and aggregation results.

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\"}}"
      }
    ]