API

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

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:

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

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

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:

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, add the following line to opensearch.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:

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:

kibana_user:
  hidden: true

Hidden resources are automatically reserved.

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

Account

Get account details

Introduced 1.0

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

{
  "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

Changes the password for the current user.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Action groups

Get action group

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves one action group.

Request

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

Sample response

{
  "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

Retrieves all action groups.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/actiongroups/

Sample response

{
  "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

Request

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

Sample response

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

Create action group

Introduced 1.0

Creates or replaces the specified action group.

Request

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

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

Patch action group

Introduced 1.0

Updates individual attributes of an action group.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Patch action groups

Introduced 1.0

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

Request

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

{
  "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

Request

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

Sample response

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

Get users

Introduced 1.0

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/internalusers/

Sample response

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

Delete user

Introduced 1.0

Request

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

Sample response

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

Create user

Introduced 1.0

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. For instructions on how to create a role, refer to creating a role.

Request

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

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

Patch user

Introduced 1.0

Updates individual attributes of an internal user.

Request

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

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

Patch users

Introduced 1.0

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

Request

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

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

Roles

Get role

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves one role.

Request

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

Sample response

{
  "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

Retrieves all roles.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/roles/

Sample response

{
  "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

Request

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

Sample response

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

Create role

Introduced 1.0

Creates or replaces the specified role.

Request

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

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

Patch role

Introduced 1.0

Updates individual attributes of a role.

Request

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

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

Patch roles

Introduced 1.0

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

Request

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

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

Role mappings

Get role mapping

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves one role mapping.

Request

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

Sample response

{
  "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

Retrieves all role mappings.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/rolesmapping

Sample response

{
  "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

Deletes the specified role mapping.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Create role mapping

Introduced 1.0

Creates or replaces the specified role mapping.

Request

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

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

Patch role mapping

Introduced 1.0

Updates individual attributes of a role mapping.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Patch role mappings

Introduced 1.0

Creates or updates multiple role mappings in a single call.

Request

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

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

Tenants

Get tenant

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves one tenant.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Get tenants

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves all tenants.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/tenants/

Sample response

{
  "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

Deletes the specified tenant.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Create tenant

Introduced 1.0

Creates or replaces the specified tenant.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Patch tenant

Introduced 1.0

Add, delete, or modify a single tenant.

Request

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

Sample response

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

Patch tenants

Introduced 1.0

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

Request

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

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

Configuration

Get configuration

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves the current security plugin configuration in JSON format.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/securityconfig

Update configuration

Introduced 1.0

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 for how to enable this operation.

Request

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

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

Patch configuration

Introduced 1.0

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 for how to enable this operation.

Before you can execute the operation, you must first add the following line to opensearch.yml:

plugins.security.unsupported.restapi.allow_securityconfig_modification: true

Request

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

Sample response

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

Distinguished names

These REST APIs let a super admin add, retrieve, update, or delete any distinguished names from an allow list to enable communication between clusters and/or nodes.

Before you can use the REST API to configure the allow list, you must first add the following line to opensearch.yml:

plugins.security.nodes_dn_dynamic_config_enabled: true

Get distinguished names

Retrieves all distinguished names in the allow list.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/nodesdn

Sample response

{
  "cluster1": {
    "nodes_dn": [
      "CN=cluster1.example.com"
    ]
  }
}

To get the distinguished names from a specific cluster’s or node’s allow list, include the cluster’s name in the request path.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/nodesdn/<cluster-name>

Sample response

{
  "cluster3": {
    "nodes_dn": [
      "CN=cluster3.example.com"
    ]
  }
}

Update distinguished names

Adds or updates the specified distinguished names in the cluster’s or node’s allow list.

Request

PUT _plugins/_security/api/nodesdn/<cluster-name>
{
  "nodes_dn": [
    "CN=cluster3.example.com"
  ]
}

Sample response

{
  "status": "CREATED",
  "message": "'cluster3' created."
}

Delete distinguished names

Deletes all distinguished names in the specified cluster’s or node’s allow list.

Request

DELETE _plugins/_security/api/nodesdn/<cluster-name>

Sample response

{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "'cluster3' deleted."
}

Certificates

Get certificates

Introduced 1.0

Retrieves the cluster’s security certificates.

Request

GET _plugins/_security/api/ssl/certs

Sample response

{
  "http_certificates_list": [
    {
      "issuer_dn": "CN=Example Com Inc. Root CA,OU=Example Com Inc. Root CA,O=Example Com Inc.,DC=example,DC=com",
      "subject_dn": "CN=node-0.example.com,OU=node,O=node,L=test,DC=de",
      "san": "[[8, 1.2.3.4.5.5], [2, node-0.example.com]",
      "not_before": "2018-04-22T03:43:47Z",
      "not_after": "2028-04-19T03:43:47Z"
    }
  ],
  "transport_certificates_list": [
    {
      "issuer_dn": "CN=Example Com Inc. Root CA,OU=Example Com Inc. Root CA,O=Example Com Inc.,DC=example,DC=com",
      "subject_dn": "CN=node-0.example.com,OU=node,O=node,L=test,DC=de",
      "san": "[[8, 1.2.3.4.5.5], [2, node-0.example.com]",
      "not_before": "2018-04-22T03:43:47Z",
      "not_after": "2028-04-19T03:43:47Z"
    }
  ]
}

Reload certificates

Introduced 1.0

Reloads SSL certificates that are about to expire without restarting the OpenSearch node.

This call assumes that new certificates are in the same location specified by the security configurations in opensearch.yml. To keep sensitive certificate reloads secure, this call only allows hot reload with certificates issued by the same issuer and subject DN and SAN with expiry dates after the current certificate.

Request

PUT _opendistro/_security/api/ssl/transport/reloadcerts
PUT _opendistro/_security/api/ssl/http/reloadcerts

Sample response

{ 
  "message": "updated http certs" 
}

Cache

Flush cache

Introduced 1.0

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

Request

DELETE _plugins/_security/api/cache

Sample response

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

Health

Health check

Introduced 1.0

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

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