[[active-directory-realm]]
=== Active Directory User Authentication

You can configure {security} to communicate with Active Directory to authenticate
users. To integrate with Active Directory, you configure an `active_directory`
realm and map Active Directory users and groups to {security} roles in the
<<mapping-roles, role mapping file>>.

To protect passwords, communications between Elasticsearch and the Active Directory
server should be encrypted using SSL/TLS. Clients and nodes that connect via
SSL/TLS to the Active Directory server need to have the Active Directory server's
certificate or the server's root CA certificate installed in their keystore or
truststore. For more information about installing certificates, see
<<active-directory-ssl>>.

==== Configuring an Active Directory Realm

{security} uses LDAP to communicate with Active Directory, so `active_directory`
realms are similar to <<ldap-realm, `ldap` realms>>. Like LDAP directories,
Active Directory stores users and groups hierarchically. The directory's
hierarchy is built from containers such as the _organizational unit_ (`ou`),
_organization_ (`o`), and _domain controller_ (`dc`).

The path to an entry is a _Distinguished Name_ (DN) that uniquely identifies a
user or group. User and group names typically have attributes such as a
_common name_ (`cn`) or _unique ID_ (`uid`). A DN is specified as a string, for
example `"cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com"` (white spaces are ignored).

{security} only supports Active Directory security groups. You cannot map
distribution groups to roles.

NOTE: When you use Active Directory for authentication, the username entered by
      the user is expected to match the `sAMAccountName` or `userPrincipalName`,
      not the common name.

The Active Directory realm authenticates users using an LDAP bind request. After
authenticating the user, the realm then searches to find the user's entry in
Active Directory. Once the user has been found, the Active Directory realm then
retrieves the user's group memberships from the `tokenGroups` attribute on the
user's entry in Active Directory.

To configure an `active_directory` realm:

. Add a realm configuration of type `active_directory` to `elasticsearch.yml`
under the `xpack.security.authc.realms` namespace. At a minimum, you must set the realm
`type` to `active_directory` and specify the Active Directory `domain_name`. To
use SSL/TLS for secured communication with the Active Directory server, you must
also set the `url` attribute and specify the `ldaps` protocol and secure port
number. If you are configuring multiple realms, you should also explicitly set
the `order` attribute to control the order in which the realms are consulted
during authentication. See <<ad-settings, Active Directory Realm Settings>>
for all of the options you can set for an `active_directory` realm.
+
NOTE: Binding to Active Directory fails if the domain name is not mapped in DNS.
      If DNS is not being provided by a Windows DNS server, add a mapping for
      the domain in the local `/etc/hosts` file.
+
For example, the following realm configuration configures {security} to connect
to `ldaps://example.com:636` to authenticate users through Active Directory.
+
[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
xpack:
  security:
    authc:
      realms:
        active_directory:
          type: active_directory
          order: 0 <1>
          domain_name: ad.example.com
          url: ldaps://ad.example.com:636 <2>
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> The realm order controls the order in which the configured realms are checked
    when authenticating a user.
<2> If you don't specify the URL, it defaults to `ldap:<domain_name>:389`.
+
IMPORTANT: When you configure realms in `elasticsearch.yml`, only the
realms you specify are used for authentication. If you also want to use the
`native` or `file` realms, you must include them in the realm chain.

. Restart Elasticsearch.

===== Configuring a Bind User
By default, all of the LDAP operations are run by the user that {security} is
authenticating. In some cases, regular users may not be able to access all of the
necessary items within Active Directory and a _bind user_ is needed. A bind user
can be configured and will be used to perform all operations other than the LDAP
bind request, which is required to authenticate the credentials provided by the user.

The use of a bind user enables the <<run-as-privilege,run as feature>> to be
used with the Active Directory realm and the ability to maintain a set of pooled
connections to Active Directory. These pooled connection reduce the number of
resources that must be created and destroyed with every user authentication.

The following example shows the configuration of a bind user through the user of the
`bind_dn` and `secure_bind_password` settings.

[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
xpack:
  security:
    authc:
      realms:
        active_directory:
          type: active_directory
          order: 0
          domain_name: ad.example.com
          url: ldaps://ad.example.com:636
          bind_dn: es_svc_user@ad.example.com <1>
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> This is the user that all Active Directory search requests are executed as.
    Without a bind user configured, all requests run as the user that is authenticating
    with Elasticsearch.

The password for the `bind_dn` user should be configured by adding the appropriate
`secure_bind_password` setting to the {es} keystore.
For example, the following command adds the password for the example realm above:

[source, shell]
------------------------------------------------------------
bin/elasticsearch-keystore add xpack.security.authc.realms.active_directory.secure_bind_password
------------------------------------------------------------

When a bind user is configured, connection pooling is enabled by default.
Connection pooling can be disabled using the `user_search.pool.enabled` setting.

===== Multiple Domain Support
When authenticating users across multiple domains in a forest, there are a few minor
differences in the configuration and the way that users will authenticate. The `domain_name`
setting should be set to the forest root domain name. The `url` setting also needs to
be set as you will need to authenticate against the Global Catalog, which uses a different
port and may not be running on every Domain Controller.

For example, the following realm configuration configures {security} to connect to specific
Domain Controllers on the Global Catalog port with the domain name set to the forest root.

[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
xpack:
  security:
    authc:
      realms:
        active_directory:
          type: active_directory
          order: 0
          domain_name: example.com <1>
          url: ldaps://dc1.ad.example.com:3269, ldaps://dc2.ad.example.com:3269 <2>
          load_balance:
            type: "round_robin" <3>
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> The `domain_name` is set to the name of the root domain in the forest.
<2> The `url` value used in this example has URLs for two different Domain Controllers,
which are also Global Catalog servers. Port 3268 is the default port for unencrypted
communication with the Global Catalog; port 3269 is the default port for SSL connections.
The servers that are being connected to can be in any domain of the forest as long as
they are also Global Catalog servers.
<3> A load balancing setting is provided to indicate the desired behavior when choosing
the server to connect to.

In this configuration, users will need to use either their full User Principal
Name (UPN) or their Down-Level Logon Name. A UPN is typically a concatenation of
the username with `@<DOMAIN_NAME` such as `johndoe@ad.example.com`. The Down-Level
Logon Name is the NetBIOS domain name, followed by a `\` and the username, such as
`AD\johndoe`. Use of Down-Level Logon Name requires a connection to the regular LDAP
ports (389 or 636) in order to query the configuration container to retrieve the
domain name from the NetBIOS name.

[[ad-load-balancing]]
===== Load Balancing and Failover
The `load_balance.type` setting can be used at the realm level to configure how
{security} should interact with multiple Active Directory servers. Two modes of
operation are supported: failover and load balancing.

See {ref}/security-settings.html#load-balancing[Load Balancing and Failover Settings].

[[ad-settings]]
===== Active Directory Realm Settings

See {ref}/security-settings.html#ref-ad-settings[Active Directory Realm Settings].

[[mapping-roles-ad]]
==== Mapping Active Directory Users and Groups to Roles

An integral part of a realm authentication process is to resolve the roles
associated with the authenticated user. Roles define the privileges a user has
in the cluster.

Since with the `active_directory` realm the users are managed externally in the
Active Directory server, the expectation is that their roles are managed there
as well. In fact, Active Directory supports the notion of groups, which often
represent user roles for different systems in the organization.

The `active_directory` realm enables you to map Active Directory users to roles
via their Active Directory groups, or other metadata. This role mapping can be
configured via the {ref}/security-api-role-mapping.html[role-mapping API], or by using
a file stored on each node. When a user authenticates against an Active
Directory realm, the privileges for that user are the union of all privileges
defined by the roles to which the user is mapped.

Within a mapping definition, you specify groups using their distinguished
names. For example, the following mapping configuration maps the Active
Directory `admins` group to both the `monitoring` and `user` roles, maps the
`users` group to the `user` role and maps the `John Doe` user to the `user`
role.

Configured via the role-mapping API:
[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT _xpack/security/role_mapping/admins
{
  "roles" : [ "monitoring" , "user" ],
  "rules" : { "field" : {
    "groups" : "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com" <1>
  } },
  "enabled": true
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
<1> The Active Directory distinguished name (DN) of the `admins` group.

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT _xpack/security/role_mapping/basic_users
{
  "roles" : [ "user" ],
  "rules" : { "any": [
    { "field" : {
      "groups" : "cn=users,dc=example,dc=com" <1>
    } },
    { "field" : {
      "dn" : "cn=John Doe,cn=contractors,dc=example,dc=com" <2>
    } }
  ] },
  "enabled": true
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
<1> The Active Directory distinguished name (DN) of the `users` group.
<2> The Active Directory distinguished name (DN) of the user `John Doe`.

Or, alternatively, configured via the role-mapping file:
[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
monitoring: <1>
  - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com" <2>
user:
  - "cn=users,dc=example,dc=com" <3>
  - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com"
  - "cn=John Doe,cn=contractors,dc=example,dc=com" <4>
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> The name of the role.
<2> The Active Directory distinguished name (DN) of the `admins` group.
<3> The Active Directory distinguished name (DN) of the `users` group.
<4> The Active Directory distinguished name (DN) of the user `John Doe`.

For more information, see <<mapping-roles, Mapping Users and Groups to Roles>>.

[[ad-user-metadata]]
==== User Metadata in Active Directory Realms
When a user is authenticated via an Active Directory realm, the following
properties are populated in the user's _metadata_. This metadata is returned in the
{ref}/security-api-authenticate.html[authenticate API], and can be used with
<<templating-role-query, templated queries>> in roles.

|=======================
| Field               | Description
| `ldap_dn`           | The distinguished name of the user.
| `ldap_groups`       | The distinguished name of each of the groups that were
                        resolved for the user (regardless of whether those
                        groups were mapped to a role).
|=======================

Additional metadata can be extracted from the Active Directory server by configuring
the `metadata` setting on the Active Directory realm.

[[active-directory-ssl]]
==== Setting up SSL Between Elasticsearch and Active Directory

To protect the user credentials that are sent for authentication, it's highly
recommended to encrypt communications between Elasticsearch and your Active
Directory server. Connecting via SSL/TLS ensures that the identity of the Active
Directory server is authenticated before {security} transmits the user
credentials, and the usernames and passwords are encrypted in transit.

To encrypt communications between Elasticsearch and Active Directory:

. Configure each node to trust certificates signed by the CA that signed your
Active Directory server certificates. The following example demonstrates how to trust a CA certificate,
`cacert.pem`, located within the {xpack} configuration directory:
+
[source,shell]
--------------------------------------------------
xpack:
  security:
    authc:
      realms:
        active_directory:
          type: active_directory
          order: 0
          domain_name: ad.example.com
          url: ldaps://ad.example.com:636
          ssl:
            certificate_authorities: [ "CONFIG_DIR/x-pack/cacert.pem" ]
--------------------------------------------------
+
The CA cert must be a PEM encoded certificate.

. Set the `url` attribute in the realm configuration to specify the LDAPS protocol
and the secure port number. For example, `url: ldaps://ad.example.com:636`.

. Restart Elasticsearch.

NOTE: By default, when you configure {security} to connect to Active Directory
      using SSL/TLS, {security} attempts to verify the hostname or IP address
      specified with the `url` attribute in the realm configuration with the
      values in the certificate. If the values in the certificate and realm
      configuration do not match, {security} does not allow a connection to the
      Active Directory server. This is done to protect against man-in-the-middle
      attacks. If necessary, you can disable this behavior by setting the
      {ref}/security-settings.html#ssl-tls-settings[`ssl.verification_mode`] property to `certificate`.