OpenSearch/x-pack/docs/en/security/authorization/overview.asciidoc

[role="xpack"]
[[authorization]]
== Configuring role-based access control

{security} introduces the concept of _authorization_ to {es}.
Authorization is the process of determining whether the user behind an incoming
request is allowed to execute it. This process takes place once a request is
successfully authenticated and the user behind the request is identified.

[[roles]]
[float]
=== Roles, permissions, and privileges

The authorization process revolves around the following 5 constructs:

_Secured Resource_::
A resource to which access is restricted. Indices/aliases, documents, fields,
users and the {es} cluster itself are all examples of secured objects.

_Privilege_::
A named group representing one or more actions that a user may execute against a
secured resource. Each secured resource has its own sets of available privileges.
For example, `read` is an index privilege that represents all actions that enable
reading the indexed/stored data. For a complete list of available privileges
see <<security-privileges>>.

_Permissions_::
A set of one or more privileges against a secured resource. Permissions can
easily be described in words, here are few examples:
 * `read` privilege on the `products` index
 * `manage` privilege on the cluster
 * `run_as` privilege on `john` user
 * `read` privilege on documents that match query X
 * `read` privilege on `credit_card` field

_Role_::
A named sets of permissions

_User_::
The authenticated user.

A secure {es} cluster manages the privileges of users through _roles_.
A role has a unique name and identifies a set of permissions that translate to
privileges on resources. A user can be associated with an arbitrary number of
roles. The total set of permissions that a user has is therefore defined by
union of the permissions in all its roles.

As an administrator, you will need to define the roles that you want to use,
then assign users to the roles. These can be assigned to users in a number of
ways depending on the realms by which the users are authenticated.

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