51 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
51 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
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[role="xpack"]
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[[how-security-works]]
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== How security works
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An Elasticsearch cluster is typically made out of many moving parts. There are
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the Elasticsearch nodes that form the cluster and often Logstash instances,
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Kibana instances, Beats agents, and clients all communicating with the cluster.
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It should not come as a surprise that securing such clusters has many facets and
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layers.
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The {stack-security-features} provide the means to secure the Elastic cluster
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on several levels:
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* <<setting-up-authentication,User authentication>>
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* <<authorization,User authorization and access control>>
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* Node/client authentication and channel encryption
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* Auditing
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[float]
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=== Node/client authentication and channel encryption
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The {security-features} support configuring SSL/TLS for securing the
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communication channels to, from and within the cluster. This support accounts for:
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* Encryption of data transmitted over the wires
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* Certificate based node authentication - preventing unauthorized nodes/clients
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from establishing a connection with the cluster.
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For more information, see <<encrypting-communications, Encrypting Communications>>.
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The {security-features} also enable you to <<ip-filtering, configure IP Filters>>
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which can be seen as a light mechanism for node/client authentication. With IP
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filtering, you can restrict the nodes and clients that can connect to the
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cluster based on their IP addresses. The IP filters configuration provides
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whitelisting and blacklisting of IPs, subnets and DNS domains.
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[float]
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=== Auditing
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When dealing with any secure system, it is critical to have a audit trail
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mechanism set in place. Audit trails log various activities/events that occur in
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the system, enabling you to analyze and back track past events when things go
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wrong (e.g. security breach).
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The {security-features} provide such audit trail functionality for all nodes in
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the cluster. You can configure the audit level which accounts for the type of
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events that are logged. These events include failed authentication attempts,
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user access denied, node connection denied, and more.
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For more information on auditing see <<auditing>>.
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