---
layout: default
title: API
parent: Access Control
nav_order: 90
---

# API

The security plugin REST API lets you programmatically create and manage users, roles, role mappings, action groups, and tenants.

---

#### Table of contents
1. TOC
{:toc}


---

## Access control for the API

Just like OpenSearch permissions, you control access to the security plugin REST API using roles. Specify roles in `opensearch.yml`:

```yml
plugins.security.restapi.roles_enabled: ["<role>", ...]
```

These roles can now access all APIs. To prevent access to certain APIs:

```yml
plugins.security.restapi.endpoints_disabled.<role>.<endpoint>: ["<method>", ...]
```

Possible values for `endpoint` are:

- ACTIONGROUPS
- ROLES
- ROLESMAPPING
- INTERNALUSERS
- CONFIG
- CACHE
- LICENSE
- SYSTEMINFO

Possible values for `method` are:

- GET
- PUT
- POST
- DELETE
- PATCH

For example, the following configuration grants three roles access to the REST API, but then prevents `test-role` from making PUT, POST, DELETE, or PATCH requests to `_plugins/_security/api/roles` or `_plugins/_security/api/internalusers`:

```yml
plugins.security.restapi.roles_enabled: ["all_access", "security_rest_api_access", "test-role"]
plugins.security.restapi.endpoints_disabled.test-role.ROLES: ["PUT", "POST", "DELETE", "PATCH"]
plugins.security.restapi.endpoints_disabled.test-role.INTERNALUSERS: ["PUT", "POST", "DELETE", "PATCH"]
```

To use the PUT and PATCH methods for the [configuration APIs](#configuration), add the following line to `opensearch.yml`:

```yml
plugins.security.unsupported.restapi.allow_securityconfig_modification: true
```


## Reserved and hidden resources

You can mark users, role, role mappings, and action groups as reserved. Resources that have this flag set to true can't be changed using the REST API or OpenSearch Dashboards.

To mark a resource as reserved, add the following flag:

```yml
kibana_user:
  reserved: true
```

Likewise, you can mark users, role, role mappings, and action groups as hidden. Resources that have this flag set to true are not returned by the REST API and not visible in OpenSearch Dashboards:

```yml
kibana_user:
  hidden: true
```

Hidden resources are automatically reserved.

To add or remove these flags, modify `plugins/opensearch-security/securityconfig/internal_users.yml` and run `plugins/opensearch-security/tools/securityadmin.sh`.


---

## Account

### Get account details
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Returns account details for the current user. For example, if you sign the request as the `admin` user, the response includes details for that user.


#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/account
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "user_name": "admin",
  "is_reserved": true,
  "is_hidden": false,
  "is_internal_user": true,
  "user_requested_tenant": null,
  "backend_roles": [
    "admin"
  ],
  "custom_attribute_names": [],
  "tenants": {
    "global_tenant": true,
    "admin_tenant": true,
    "admin": true
  },
  "roles": [
    "all_access",
    "own_index"
  ]
}
```


### Change password
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Changes the password for the current user.


#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/account
{
    "current_password" : "old-password",
    "password" : "new-password"
}
```


#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'test-user' updated."
}
```


---

## Action groups

### Get action group
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves one action group.


#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups/<action-group>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "custom_action_group": {
    "reserved": false,
    "hidden": false,
    "allowed_actions": [
      "kibana_all_read",
      "indices:admin/aliases/get",
      "indices:admin/aliases/exists"
    ],
    "description": "My custom action group",
    "static": false
  }
}
```


### Get action groups
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves all action groups.


#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups/
```


#### Sample response

```json
{
  "read": {
    "reserved": true,
    "hidden": false,
    "allowed_actions": [
      "indices:data/read*",
      "indices:admin/mappings/fields/get*"
    ],
    "type": "index",
    "description": "Allow all read operations",
    "static": true
  },
  ...
}
```


### Delete action group
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

#### Request

```
DELETE _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups/<action-group>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"OK",
  "message":"actiongroup SEARCH deleted."
}
```


### Create action group
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or replaces the specified action group.

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups/<action-group>
{
  "allowed_actions": [
    "indices:data/write/index*",
    "indices:data/write/update*",
    "indices:admin/mapping/put",
    "indices:data/write/bulk*",
    "read",
    "write"
  ]
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "CREATED",
  "message": "'my-action-group' created."
}
```


### Patch action group
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Updates individual attributes of an action group.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups/<action-group>
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/allowed_actions", "value": ["indices:admin/create", "indices:admin/mapping/put"]
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"OK",
  "message":"actiongroup SEARCH deleted."
}
```


### Patch action groups
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates, updates, or deletes multiple action groups in a single call.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups
[
  {
    "op": "add", "path": "/CREATE_INDEX", "value": { "allowed_actions": ["indices:admin/create", "indices:admin/mapping/put"] }
  },
  {
    "op": "remove", "path": "/CRUD"
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"OK",
  "message":"actiongroup SEARCH deleted."
}
```


---

## Users

These calls let you create, update, and delete internal users. If you use an external authentication backend, you probably don't need to worry about internal users.


### Get user
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/internalusers/<username>
```


#### Sample response

```json
{
  "kirk": {
    "hash": "",
    "roles": [ "captains", "starfleet" ],
    "attributes": {
       "attribute1": "value1",
       "attribute2": "value2",
    }
  }
}
```


### Get users
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/internalusers/
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "kirk": {
    "hash": "",
    "roles": [ "captains", "starfleet" ],
    "attributes": {
       "attribute1": "value1",
       "attribute2": "value2",
    }
  }
}
```


### Delete user
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

#### Request

```
DELETE _plugins/_security/api/internalusers/<username>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"OK",
  "message":"user kirk deleted."
}
```


### Create user
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or replaces the specified user. You must specify either `password` (plain text) or `hash` (the hashed user password). If you specify `password`, the security plugin automatically hashes the password before storing it.

Note that any role you supply in the `opendistro_security_roles` array must already exist for the security plugin to map the user to that role. To see predefined roles, refer to [the list of predefined roles]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/security-plugin/access-control/users-roles#predefined-roles). For instructions on how to create a role, refer to [creating a role](#create-role).

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/internalusers/<username>
{
  "password": "kirkpass",
  "opendistro_security_roles": ["maintenance_staff", "weapons"],
  "backend_roles": ["captains", "starfleet"],
  "attributes": {
    "attribute1": "value1",
    "attribute2": "value2"
  }
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"CREATED",
  "message":"User kirk created"
}
```


### Patch user
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Updates individual attributes of an internal user.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/internalusers/<username>
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/backend_roles", "value": ["klingons"]
  },
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/opendistro_security_roles", "value": ["ship_manager"]
  },
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/attributes", "value": { "newattribute": "newvalue" }
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'kirk' updated."
}
```

### Patch users
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates, updates, or deletes multiple internal users in a single call.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/internalusers
[
  {
    "op": "add", "path": "/spock", "value": { "password": "testpassword1", "backend_roles": ["testrole1"] }
  },
  {
    "op": "add", "path": "/worf", "value": { "password": "testpassword2", "backend_roles": ["testrole2"] }
  },
  {
    "op": "remove", "path": "/riker"
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```


---

## Roles


### Get role
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves one role.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/roles/<role>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "test-role": {
    "reserved": false,
    "hidden": false,
    "cluster_permissions": [
      "cluster_composite_ops",
      "indices_monitor"
    ],
    "index_permissions": [{
      "index_patterns": [
        "movies*"
      ],
      "dls": "",
      "fls": [],
      "masked_fields": [],
      "allowed_actions": [
        "read"
      ]
    }],
    "tenant_permissions": [{
      "tenant_patterns": [
        "human_resources"
      ],
      "allowed_actions": [
        "kibana_all_read"
      ]
    }],
    "static": false
  }
}
```


### Get roles
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves all roles.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/roles/
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "manage_snapshots": {
    "reserved": true,
    "hidden": false,
    "description": "Provide the minimum permissions for managing snapshots",
    "cluster_permissions": [
      "manage_snapshots"
    ],
    "index_permissions": [{
      "index_patterns": [
        "*"
      ],
      "fls": [],
      "masked_fields": [],
      "allowed_actions": [
        "indices:data/write/index",
        "indices:admin/create"
      ]
    }],
    "tenant_permissions": [],
    "static": true
  },
  ...
}
```


### Delete role
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

#### Request

```
DELETE _plugins/_security/api/roles/<role>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"OK",
  "message":"role test-role deleted."
}
```


### Create role
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or replaces the specified role.

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/roles/<role>
{
  "cluster_permissions": [
    "cluster_composite_ops",
    "indices_monitor"
  ],
  "index_permissions": [{
    "index_patterns": [
      "movies*"
    ],
    "dls": "",
    "fls": [],
    "masked_fields": [],
    "allowed_actions": [
      "read"
    ]
  }],
  "tenant_permissions": [{
    "tenant_patterns": [
      "human_resources"
    ],
    "allowed_actions": [
      "kibana_all_read"
    ]
  }]
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'test-role' updated."
}
```


### Patch role
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Updates individual attributes of a role.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/roles/<role>
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/index_permissions/0/fls", "value": ["myfield1", "myfield2"]
  },
  {
    "op": "remove", "path": "/index_permissions/0/dls"
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'<role>' updated."
}
```


### Patch roles
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates, updates, or deletes multiple roles in a single call.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/roles
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/role1/index_permissions/0/fls", "value": ["test1", "test2"]
  },
  {
    "op": "remove", "path": "/role1/index_permissions/0/dls"
  },
  {
    "op": "add", "path": "/role2/cluster_permissions", "value": ["manage_snapshots"]
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```


---

## Role mappings

### Get role mapping
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves one role mapping.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping/<role>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "role_starfleet" : {
    "backend_roles" : [ "starfleet", "captains", "defectors", "cn=ldaprole,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com" ],
    "hosts" : [ "*.starfleetintranet.com" ],
    "users" : [ "worf" ]
  }
}
```


### Get role mappings
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves all role mappings.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "role_starfleet" : {
    "backend_roles" : [ "starfleet", "captains", "defectors", "cn=ldaprole,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com" ],
    "hosts" : [ "*.starfleetintranet.com" ],
    "users" : [ "worf" ]
  }
}
```


### Delete role mapping
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Deletes the specified role mapping.

#### Request

```
DELETE _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping/<role>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'my-role' deleted."
}
```


### Create role mapping
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or replaces the specified role mapping.

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping/<role>
{
  "backend_roles" : [ "starfleet", "captains", "defectors", "cn=ldaprole,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com" ],
  "hosts" : [ "*.starfleetintranet.com" ],
  "users" : [ "worf" ]
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "CREATED",
  "message": "'my-role' created."
}
```


### Patch role mapping
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Updates individual attributes of a role mapping.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping/<role>
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/users", "value": ["myuser"]
  },
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/backend_roles", "value": ["mybackendrole"]
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'my-role' updated."
}
```


### Patch role mappings
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or updates multiple role mappings in a single call.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping
[
  {
    "op": "add", "path": "/human_resources", "value": { "users": ["user1"], "backend_roles": ["backendrole2"] }
  },
  {
    "op": "add", "path": "/finance", "value": { "users": ["user2"], "backend_roles": ["backendrole2"] }
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```


---

## Tenants

### Get tenant
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves one tenant.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/tenants/<tenant>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "human_resources": {
    "reserved": false,
    "hidden": false,
    "description": "A tenant for the human resources team.",
    "static": false
  }
}
```


### Get tenants
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves all tenants.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/tenants/
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "global_tenant": {
    "reserved": true,
    "hidden": false,
    "description": "Global tenant",
    "static": true
  },
  "human_resources": {
    "reserved": false,
    "hidden": false,
    "description": "A tenant for the human resources team.",
    "static": false
  }
}
```


### Delete tenant
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Deletes the specified tenant.

#### Request

```
DELETE _plugins/_security/api/tenants/<tenant>
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"OK",
  "message":"tenant human_resources deleted."
}
```


### Create tenant
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or replaces the specified tenant.

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/tenants/<tenant>
{
  "description": "A tenant for the human resources team."
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status":"CREATED",
  "message":"tenant human_resources created"
}
```


### Patch tenant
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Add, delete, or modify a single tenant.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/tenants/<tenant>
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/description", "value": "An updated description"
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```


### Patch tenants
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Add, delete, or modify multiple tenants in a single call.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/tenants/
[
  {
    "op": "replace",
    "path": "/human_resources/description",
    "value": "An updated description"
  },
  {
    "op": "add",
    "path": "/another_tenant",
    "value": {
      "description": "Another description."
    }
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```

---

## Configuration

### Get configuration
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves the current security plugin configuration in JSON format.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig
```


### Update configuration
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or updates the existing configuration using the REST API. This operation can easily break your existing configuration, so we recommend using `securityadmin.sh` instead, which is far safer. See [Access control for the API](#access-control-for-the-api) for how to enable this operation.

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig/config
{
  "dynamic": {
    "filtered_alias_mode": "warn",
    "disable_rest_auth": false,
    "disable_intertransport_auth": false,
    "respect_request_indices_options": false,
    "opensearch-dashboards": {
      "multitenancy_enabled": true,
      "server_username": "kibanaserver",
      "index": ".opensearch-dashboards"
    },
    "http": {
      "anonymous_auth_enabled": false
    },
    "authc": {
      "basic_internal_auth_domain": {
        "http_enabled": true,
        "transport_enabled": true,
        "order": 0,
        "http_authenticator": {
          "challenge": true,
          "type": "basic",
          "config": {}
        },
        "authentication_backend": {
          "type": "intern",
          "config": {}
        },
        "description": "Authenticate via HTTP Basic against internal users database"
      }
    },
    "auth_failure_listeners": {},
    "do_not_fail_on_forbidden": false,
    "multi_rolespan_enabled": true,
    "hosts_resolver_mode": "ip-only",
    "do_not_fail_on_forbidden_empty": false
  }
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'config' updated."
}
```


### Patch configuration
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Updates the existing configuration using the REST API. This operation can easily break your existing configuration, so we recommend using `securityadmin.sh` instead, which is far safer. See [Access control for the API](#access-control-for-the-api) for how to enable this operation.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/config/dynamic/authc/basic_internal_auth_domain/transport_enabled", "value": "true"
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```


---

## Certificates

### Get certificates
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Retrieves the current security plugin configuration in JSON format.

#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig
```


### Update configuration
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Creates or updates the existing configuration using the REST API rather than `securityadmin.sh`. This operation can easily break your existing configuration, so we recommend using `securityadmin.sh` instead. See [Access control for the API](#access-control-for-the-api) for how to enable this operation.

#### Request

```json
PUT _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig/config
{
  "dynamic": {
    "filtered_alias_mode": "warn",
    "disable_rest_auth": false,
    "disable_intertransport_auth": false,
    "respect_request_indices_options": false,
    "opensearch-dashboards": {
      "multitenancy_enabled": true,
      "server_username": "kibanaserver",
      "index": ".opensearch-dashboards"
    },
    "http": {
      "anonymous_auth_enabled": false
    },
    "authc": {
      "basic_internal_auth_domain": {
        "http_enabled": true,
        "transport_enabled": true,
        "order": 0,
        "http_authenticator": {
          "challenge": true,
          "type": "basic",
          "config": {}
        },
        "authentication_backend": {
          "type": "intern",
          "config": {}
        },
        "description": "Authenticate via HTTP Basic against internal users database"
      }
    },
    "auth_failure_listeners": {},
    "do_not_fail_on_forbidden": false,
    "multi_rolespan_enabled": true,
    "hosts_resolver_mode": "ip-only",
    "do_not_fail_on_forbidden_empty": false
  }
}
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'config' updated."
}
```


### Patch configuration
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Updates the existing configuration using the REST API rather than `securityadmin.sh`. This operation can easily break your existing configuration, so we recommend using `securityadmin.sh` instead. See [Access control for the API](#access-control-for-the-api) for how to enable this operation.

#### Request

```json
PATCH _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig
[
  {
    "op": "replace", "path": "/config/dynamic/authc/basic_internal_auth_domain/transport_enabled", "value": "true"
  }
]
```

#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Resource updated."
}
```

---

## Cache

### Flush cache
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Flushes the security plugin user, authentication, and authorization cache.


#### Request

```
DELETE _plugins/_security/api/cache
```


#### Sample response

```json
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Cache flushed successfully."
}
```


---

## Health

### Health check
Introduced 1.0
{: .label .label-purple }

Checks to see if the security plugin is up and running. If you operate your cluster behind a load balancer, this operation is useful for determining node health and doesn't require a signed request.


#### Request

```
GET _plugins/_security/health
```


#### Sample response

```json
{
  "message": null,
  "mode": "strict",
  "status": "UP"
}
```