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Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [6.7] ›X-Pack APIs ›Security APIs

Authenticate API

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IMPORTANT: This documentation is no longer updated. Refer to Elastic's version policy and the latest documentation.

Authenticate API

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The Authenticate API enables you to submit a request with a basic auth header to authenticate a user and retrieve information about the authenticated user.

Request

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GET _xpack/security/_authenticate

Description

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A successful call returns a JSON structure that shows user information such as their username, the roles that are assigned to the user, any assigned metadata, and information about the realms that authenticated and authorized the user.

If the user cannot be authenticated, this API returns a 401 status code.

Examples

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To authenticate a user, submit a GET request to the _xpack/security/_authenticate endpoint:

GET _xpack/security/_authenticate
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The following example output provides information about the "rdeniro" user:

{
  "username": "rdeniro",
  "roles": [
    "admin"
  ],
  "full_name": null,
  "email":  null,
  "metadata": { },
  "enabled": true,
  "authentication_realm": {
    "name" : "default_file",
    "type" : "file"
  },
  "lookup_realm": {
    "name" : "default_file",
    "type" : "file"
  }
}
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