built-in-users.asciidoc

Built-in users

The {stack-security-features} provide built-in user credentials to help you get up and running. These users have a fixed set of privileges and cannot be authenticated until their passwords have been set. The elastic user can be used to set all of the built-in user passwords.

elastic

A built-in superuser.

kibana

The user Kibana uses to connect and communicate with {es}.

logstash_system

The user Logstash uses when storing monitoring information in {es}.

beats_system

The user the Beats use when storing monitoring information in {es}.

apm_system

The user the APM server uses when storing monitoring information in {es}.

remote_monitoring_user

The user {metricbeat} uses when collecting and storing monitoring information in {es}. It has the remote_monitoring_agent and remote_monitoring_collector built-in roles.

Tip	The built-in users serve specific purposes and are not intended for general use. In particular, do not use the elastic superuser unless full access to the cluster is required. Instead, create users that have the minimum necessary roles or privileges for their activities.

How the built-in users work

These built-in users are stored in a special .security index, which is managed by {es}. If a built-in user is disabled or its password changes, the change is automatically reflected on each node in the cluster. If your .security index is deleted or restored from a snapshot, however, any changes you have applied are lost.

Although they share the same API, the built-in users are separate and distinct from users managed by the native realm. Disabling the native realm will not have any effect on the built-in users. The built-in users can be disabled individually, using the {ref}/security-api-disable-user.html[disable users API].

The Elastic bootstrap password

When you install {es}, if the elastic user does not already have a password, it uses a default bootstrap password. The bootstrap password is a transient password that enables you to run the tools that set all the built-in user passwords.

By default, the bootstrap password is derived from a randomized keystore.seed setting, which is added to the keystore during installation. You do not need to know or change this bootstrap password. If you have defined a bootstrap.password setting in the keystore, however, that value is used instead. For more information about interacting with the keystore, see {ref}/secure-settings.html[Secure Settings].

Note	After you set passwords for the built-in users, in particular for the elastic user, there is no further use for the bootstrap password.

Setting built-in user passwords

You must set the passwords for all built-in users.

The elasticsearch-setup-passwords tool is the simplest method to set the built-in users' passwords for the first time. It uses the elastic user’s bootstrap password to run user management API requests. For example, you can run the command in an "interactive" mode, which prompts you to enter new passwords for the elastic, kibana_system, logstash_system, beats_system, apm_system, and remote_monitoring_user users:

bin/elasticsearch-setup-passwords interactive

For more information about the command options, see {ref}/setup-passwords.html[elasticsearch-setup-passwords].

Important

After you set a password for the elastic user, the bootstrap password is no longer valid; you cannot run the elasticsearch-setup-passwords command a second time.

Alternatively, you can set the initial passwords for the built-in users by using the Management > Users page in {kib} or the {ref}/security-api-change-password.html[Change Password API]. These methods are more complex. You must supply the elastic user and its bootstrap password to log into {kib} or run the API. This requirement means that you cannot use the default bootstrap password that is derived from the keystore.seed setting. Instead, you must explicitly set a bootstrap.password setting in the keystore before you start {es}. For example, the following command prompts you to enter a new bootstrap password:

bin/elasticsearch-keystore add "bootstrap.password"

You can then start {es} and {kib} and use the elastic user and bootstrap password to log into {kib} and change the passwords. Alternatively, you can submit Change Password API requests for each built-in user. These methods are better suited for changing your passwords after the initial setup is complete, since at that point the bootstrap password is no longer required.

Adding built-in user passwords to {kib}

After the kibana_system user password is set, you need to update the {kib} server with the new password by setting elasticsearch.password in the kibana.yml configuration file:

elasticsearch.password: kibanapassword

See {kibana-ref}/using-kibana-with-security.html[Configuring security in {kib}].

Adding built-in user passwords to {ls}

The logstash_system user is used internally within Logstash when monitoring is enabled for Logstash.

To enable this feature in Logstash, you need to update the Logstash configuration with the new password by setting xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password in the logstash.yml configuration file:

xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: logstashpassword

If you have upgraded from an older version of {es}, the logstash_system user may have defaulted to disabled for security reasons. Once the password has been changed, you can enable the user via the following API call:

PUT _security/user/logstash_system/_enable

See {logstash-ref}/ls-security.html#ls-monitoring-user[Configuring credentials for {ls} monitoring].

Adding built-in user passwords to Beats

The beats_system user is used internally within Beats when monitoring is enabled for Beats.

To enable this feature in Beats, you need to update the configuration for each of your beats to reference the correct username and password. For example:

xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.username: beats_system
xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: beatspassword

For example, see {metricbeat-ref}/monitoring.html[Monitoring {metricbeat}].

The remote_monitoring_user is used when {metricbeat} collects and stores monitoring data for the {stack}. See [monitoring-production].

If you have upgraded from an older version of {es}, then you may not have set a password for the beats_system or remote_monitoring_user users. If this is the case, then you should use the Management > Users page in {kib} or the {ref}/security-api-change-password.html[Change Password API] to set a password for these users.

Adding built-in user passwords to APM

The apm_system user is used internally within APM when monitoring is enabled.

To enable this feature in APM, you need to update the {apm-server-ref-v}/configuring-howto-apm-server.html[APM configuration file] to reference the correct username and password. For example:

xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.username: apm_system
xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: apmserverpassword

See {apm-server-ref-v}/monitoring.html[Monitoring APM Server].

If you have upgraded from an older version of {es}, then you may not have set a password for the apm_system user. If this is the case, then you should use the Management > Users page in {kib} or the {ref}/security-api-change-password.html[Change Password API] to set a password for these users.

Disabling default password functionality

Important

This setting is deprecated. The elastic user no longer has a default password. The password must be set before the user can be used. See The Elastic bootstrap password.