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Native User Authentication

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IMPORTANT: This documentation is no longer updated.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

Native User Authentication

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The easiest way to manage and authenticate users is with the internal native realm. You can use the REST APIs or Kibana to add and remove users, assign user roles, and manage user passwords.

Configuring a Native Realm

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The native realm is added to the realm chain by default. You don’t need to explicitly configure a native realm to manage users through the REST APIs.

When you configure realms in elasticsearch.yml, only the realms you specify are used for authentication. To use the native realm as a fallback, you must include it in the realm chain.

You can, however, configure options for the native realm in the xpack.security.authc.realms namespace in elasticsearch.yml. Explicitly configuring a native realm enables you to set the order in which it appears in the realm chain, temporary disable the realm, and control its cache options.

To configure a native realm:

Add a realm configuration of type native to elasticsearch.yml under the xpack.security.authc.realms namespace. At a minimum, you must set the realm type to native. If you are configuring multiple realms, you should also explicitly set the order attribute. See Native Realm Settings for all of the options you can set for the native realm.

For example, the following snippet shows a native realm configuration that sets the order to zero so the realm is checked first:
```
xpack:
  security:
    authc:
      realms:
        native1:
          type: native
          order: 0
```
Restart Elasticsearch.

Table 4. Native Realm Settings

Setting	Required	Description
`type`	yes	Indicates the realm type. Must be set to `native`.
`order`	no	Indicates the priority of this realm within the realm chain. Realms with a lower order are consulted first. Although not required, we recommend explicitly setting this value when you configure multiple realms. Defaults to `Integer.MAX_VALUE`.
`enabled`	no	Indicates whether this realm is enabled or disabled. When set to `false`, the realm is not added to the realm chain and therefore is inactive. Defaults to `true`.
`cache.ttl`	no	Specifies the time-to-live for cached user entries. A user’s credentials are cached for this period of time. Specify the time period using the standard Elasticsearch time units. Defaults to `20m`.
`cache.max_users`	no	Specifies the maximum number of user entries that can be cached at any given time. Defaults to 100,000.
`cache.hash_algo`	no	Specifies the hashing algorithm that is used for the cached user credentials. See Cache hash algorithms for the possible values. (Expert Setting)

Managing Native Users

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You manage users in the native realm through the user API.

To migrate file-based users to the native realm, use the migrate tool.

Adding Users

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To add a user, submit a PUT or POST request to the /_xpack/security/user/<username> endpoint. A username must be at least 1 character long and no longer than 30 characters. The first character must be a letter (a-z or A-Z) or an underscore (_). Subsequent characters can be letters, underscores (_), digits (0-9), or any of the following symbols @, -, . or $.

POST /_xpack/security/user/jacknich
{
  "password" : "j@rV1s", 
  "roles" : [ "admin", "other_role1" ], 
  "full_name" : "Jack Nicholson", 
  "email" : "[email protected]", 
  "metadata" : { 
    "intelligence" : 7
  },
  "enabled": true 
}

	You must specify a password when adding a user. Passwords must be at least 6 characters long.
	You must assign at least one role to the user. The roles determine the user’s access permissions.
	The user’s full name. Optional.
	The user’s email address. Optional.
	Arbitrary metadata you want to associate with the user. Optional.
	Specifies whether the user should be enabled. Optional with a default of true.

Retrieving Users

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To retrieve all users, submit a GET request to the /_xpack/security/user endpoint:

GET /_xpack/security/user

To retrieve particular users, specify the users as a comma-separated list:

GET /_xpack/security/user/jacknich,rdeniro

An object is returned holding the found users, each keyed by the relevant username. Note that user passwords are not included.

{
  "jacknich" : {
    "username": "jacknich",
    "roles" : [ "admin", "other_role1" ],
    "full_name" : "Jack Nicholson",
    "email" : "[email protected]",
    "enabled" : true,
    "metadata" : {
      "intelligence" : 7
    }
  }
}

Deleting Users

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To delete a user, submit a DELETE request to the /_xpack/security/user/<username> endpoint:

DELETE /_xpack/security/user/jacknich

If the user is successfully deleted, the request returns {"found": true}. Otherwise, found is set to false.

{
  "found" : true
}

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