Configure User Access Control for Elasticsearch

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Configure User Access Control for Elasticsearch

To enforce data confidentiality and maintain user accessibility with Elasticsearch, we need to know how to create custom roles and users. In this hands-on lab, we go through the following tasks on a single-node Elasticsearch cluster, using either Kibana or `curl` on the command line: * Create custom roles * Create users

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Lab Info

Level

Advanced

Last updated

Sep 17, 2025

Duration

2h 0m

Table of Contents

Challenge

Create the sample_read Role

Use the Kibana console tool to execute the following:

POST _security/role/sample_read
{
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [
        "sample-*"
      ],
      "privileges": [
        "read"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Or, use command-line curl on any one of the nodes via ssh:

curl -k -u elastic:la_elastic_409 -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/_security/role/sample_read?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"indices":[{"names":["sample-*"],"privileges":["read"]}]}'

Challenge

Create the sample_write Role

Use the Kibana console tool to execute the following:

POST _security/role/sample_write
{
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [
        "sample-*"
      ],
      "privileges": [
        "read",
        "write"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Or, use command-line curl on any one of the nodes via ssh:

curl -k -u elastic:la_elastic_409 -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/_security/role/sample_write?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"indices":[{"names":["sample-*"],"privileges":["read","write"]}]}'

Challenge

Create the sample_monitor Role

Use the Kibana console tool to execute the following:

POST _security/role/sample_monitor
{
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [
        "sample-*"
      ],
      "privileges": [
        "read",
        "monitor"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Or, use command-line curl on any one of the nodes via ssh:

curl -k -u elastic:la_elastic_409 -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/_security/role/sample_monitor?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"indices":[{"names":["sample-*"],"privileges":["read","monitor"]}]}'

Challenge

Create the john User

Use the Kibana console tool to execute the following:

POST _security/user/john
{
  "roles": [
    "kibana_user",
    "sample_read"
  ],
  "full_name": "John Doe",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "john_123"
}

Or, use command-line curl on any one of the nodes via ssh:

curl -k -u elastic:la_elastic_409 -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/_security/user/john?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"roles":["kibana_user","sample_read"],"full_name":"John Doe","email":"[email protected]","password":"john_123"}'

Challenge

Create the jane User

Use the Kibana console tool to execute the following:

POST _security/user/jane
{
  "roles": [
    "kibana_user",
    "sample_write"
  ],
  "full_name": "Jane Doe",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "jane_456"
}

Or, use command-line curl on any one of the nodes via ssh:

curl -k -u elastic:la_elastic_409 -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/_security/user/jane?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"roles":["kibana_user","sample_write"],"full_name":"Jane Doe","email":"[email protected]","password":"jane_456"}'

Challenge

Create the noc User

Use the Kibana console tool to execute the following:

POST _security/user/noc
{
  "roles": [
    "kibana_user",
    "sample_monitor",
    "monitoring_user"
  ],
  "full_name": "Network Operations Center",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "password": "noc_789"
}

Or, use command-line curl on any one of the nodes via ssh:

curl -k -u elastic:la_elastic_409 -XPOST "http://localhost:9200/_security/user/noc?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"roles":["kibana_user","sample_monitor","monitoring_user"],"full_name":"Network Operations Center","email":"[email protected]","password":"noc_789"}'

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