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Beats and Security

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Beats and Security

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To send data to a secured cluster through the elasticsearch output, a Beat needs to authenticate as a user who can manage index templates, monitor the cluster, create indices, and read, and write to the indices it creates.

If encryption is enabled on the cluster, you also need to enable HTTPS in the Beat configuration.

In addition to configuring authentication credentials for the Beat itself, you need to grant authorized users permission to access the indices it creates.

Configuring Authentication Credentials for a Beat

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When sending data to a secured cluster through the elasticsearch output, a Beat must either provide basic authentication credentials or present a client certificate.

To configure authentication credentials for a Beat:

Create a role that has the manage_index_templates and monitor cluster privileges, and read, write, and create_index privileges for the indices the Beat creates. You can create roles from the Management / Roles UI in Kibana or through the role API. For example, the following request creates a packetbeat_writer role:
```
POST _xpack/security/role/packetbeat_writer
{
  "cluster": ["manage_index_templates", "monitor"],
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [ "packetbeat-*" ], 
      "privileges": ["write","create_index"]
    }
  ]
}
```
If you use a custom Packetbeat index pattern, specify that pattern instead of the default packetbeat-* pattern.
Assign the writer role to the user the Beat is going to use to connect to Elasticsearch:
1. To authenticate as a native user, create a user for the Beat to use internally and assign it the writer role. You can create users from the Management / Users UI in Kibana or through the user API. For example, the following request creates a packetbeat_internal user that has the packetbeat_writer role:
```
POST /_xpack/security/user/packetbeat_internal
{
  "password" : "changeme",
  "roles" : [ "packetbeat_writer"],
  "full_name" : "Internal Packetbeat User"
}
```
2. To authenticate using PKI authentication, assign the writer role to the internal Beat user in the role_mapping.yml configuration file. Specify the user by the distinguished name that appears in its certificate.
```
packetbeat_writer:
  - "cn=Internal Packetbeat User,ou=example,o=com"
```
Configure authentication credentials for the elasticsearch output in the Beat configuration file:
1. To use basic authentication, configure the username and password settings. For example, the following Packetbeat output configuration uses the native packetbeat_internal user to connect to Elasticsearch:
```
output.elasticsearch:
    hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
    index: "packetbeat"
    username: "packetbeat_internal"
    password: "changeme"
```
2. To use PKI authentication, configure the certificate and key settings:
```
output.elasticsearch:
    hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
    index: "packetbeat"
    ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem" 
    ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
```
  The distinguished name (DN) in the certificate must be mapped to the writer role in the role_mapping.yml configuration file on each node in the Elasticsearch cluster.

Granting Users Access to Beats Indices

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To enable users to access the indices a Beat creates, grant them read and view_index_metadata privileges on the Beat indices:

Create a role that has the read and view_index_metadata privileges for the Beat indices. You can create roles from the Management > Roles UI in Kibana or through the role API. For example, the following request creates a packetbeat_reader role:
```
POST _xpack/security/role/packetbeat_reader
{
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [ "packetbeat-*" ], 
      "privileges": ["read","view_index_metadata"]
    }
  ]
}
```
If you use a custom Packetbeat index pattern, specify that pattern instead of the default packetbeat-* pattern.
Assign your users the reader role so they can access the Beat indices:
1. If you’re using the native realm, you can assign roles with the Management > Users UI in Kibana or through the user API. For example, the following request grants packetbeat_user the packetbeat_reader role:
```
POST /_xpack/security/user/packetbeat_user
{
  "password" : "changeme",
  "roles" : [ "packetbeat_reader"],
  "full_name" : "Packetbeat User"
}
```
2. If you’re using the LDAP, Active Directory, or PKI realms, you assign the roles in the role_mapping.yml configuration file. For example, the following snippet grants Packetbeat User the packetbeat_reader role:
```
packetbeat_reader:
  - "cn=Packetbeat User,dc=example,dc=com"
```

Configuring Beats to use Encrypted Connections

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If encryption is enabled on the Elasticsearch cluster, you need to connect to Elasticsearch via HTTPS. If the CA that signed your node certificates is not in the host system’s trusted certificate authorities list, you also need to add the path to the .pem file that contains your CA’s certificate to the Beat configuration.

To configure a Beat to connect to Elasticsearch via HTTPS, add the https protocol to all host URLs:

output.elasticsearch:
    hosts: ["https://localhost:9200"] 
    index: "packetbeat"
    ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]

	Specify the `https` protocol to connect the Elasticsearch cluster.
	Specify the path to the local `.pem` file that contains your Certificate Authority’s certificate. This is generally only needed if you use your own CA to sign your node certificates.

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