For Kibana

User manual for ReadonlyREST Enterprise/PRO/Free
🧙 Are you using Kibana version 7.8.x or older? Go to the old platform manual page.
Kibana Plugin overview
ReadonlyREST plugin for Kibana is not open source, and it's offered as part of the ReadonlyREST PRO and ReadonlyREST ENTERPRISE, and ReadonlyREST Free packages. See product descriptions and a comparison chart in the official ReadonlyREST website​
ReadonlyREST plugins for Kibana always require ReadonlyREST opens source plugin to be installed in the Elasticsearch nodes your Kibana instance(s) will connect to.
It's not mandatory to install ReadonlyREST in all Elasticsearch nodes, but only in the ones in where you need the HTTP interface to be secured.
After purchasing
If you didn't install it yet, download the latest universal build from our download page and install it manually. Alternatively, see below if you want to install it directly via the command line without downloading it from the browser.
Once the universal build plugin for Kibana is installed, you can activate it using an activation key. You can get one of these in the ReadonlyREST customer portal if you are a subscriber, otherwise, use the same portal to get a trial activation key (for PRO or Enterprise) for 30 days evaluation.
Version strings
All our plugins include in their file name a version string. For example the file readonlyrest-1.46.0_es8.6.0.zip has a version string 1.46.0_es8.6.0.
Reading version strings
Given the version string 1.46.0_es8.6.0
ReadonlyREST plugin code version 1.46.0
Works only with Elasticsearch/Kibana version 8.6.0
The "es" stands for "Elastic stack" which used to mean the family of products made by Elastic which get released at the same time under the same version number. This was chosen before Elastic renamed their X-Pack commercial offer to Elastic Stack.
To be clear, there is no affiliation between ReadonlyREST and Elastic, or their commercial products.
Universal Kibana plugin version strings
Our Kibana plugin file naming follows very similar rules:
I.e. readonlyrest_kbn_universal-1.46.0_es8.6.0.zip
ReadonlyREST PRO plugin version 1.46.0
Works only with Kibana version 8.6.0
When an update is out
You will receive another email notification that a new deliverable is available.
If the update contains a security fix, it is very important that you take action and update the plugin immediately.
Installation
You can install this as a normal Kibana plugin using the bin/kibana-plugin utility. Let's see a two ways to use this utility with ReadonlyREST.
Don't forget
After Kibana 7.9.x, it's necessary to patch Kibana after you install, otherwise ReadonlyREST will NOT work.
Installing via URL
This installation method is more practical if your Kibana server is connected to the internet.
Please note that this will always download the latest version of Kibana plugin available for the current supported Elasticsearch version.
# ReadonlyREST Universal Kibana plugin
$ bin/kibana-plugin install "https://api.beshu.tech/download/kbn?edition=kbn_universal&email=<your_email_address>"
If you want to download the latest version of plugin for a specific version of Kibana, then use query parameter esVersion to specify your required Kibana version.
$ bin/kibana-plugin install "https://api.beshu.tech/download/kbn?edition=kbn_universal&esVersion=7.6.1&email=<your_email_address>"
​
If you want to download an older version of plugin for a specific version of Elasticsearch, then use query parameter pluginVersion along with esVersion. Please note that you can only go so far back with plugin versions. Let us know if you can't download a specific one.
$ bin/kibana-plugin install "https://api.beshu.tech/download/kbn?edition=kbn_universal&esVersion=8.6.0&pluginVersion=1.46.0&email=<your_email_address>"
It's possible to add an extra query parameter (checksum=true) to any download URL to obtain a sha1 checksum of the corresponding deliverable. For example:
$curl -vvv  "https://api.beshu.tech/download/kbn?esVersion=8.6.0&pluginVersion=1.46.0&[email protected]&edition=kbn_universal&checksum=true" 
[...]
$ curl -vvv  "https://api.beshu.tech/download/es?esVersion=8.6.0&pluginVersion=1.46.0&checksum=true" 
[...]
Now you are ready to patch Kibana.
Installing from zip file
$ bin/kibana-plugin install file:///home/user/downloads/readonlyrest_kbn-X.Y.Z_esW.Q.U.zip
Notice how we need to type in the format file:// + absolute path (yes, with three slashes).
Patching Kibana
If you are using Kibana 7.9.x or newer, you need an extra post-installation step. This will slightly modify some core Kibana files.
# Patch Kibana core files 
$ node/bin/node plugins/readonlyrestkbn/ror-tools.js patch
Unpatching Kibana
If you are using Kibana 7.9.x or newer, you need an extra pre-uninstallation step. This will restore the core Kibana files to the original state.
# Unpatch Kibana core files 
$ node/bin/node plugins/readonlyrestkbn/ror-tools.js unpatch
Uninstalling
To uninstall, you should unpatch Kibana first, then uninstall ReadonlyREST plugin. However the Kibana plugin system uninstallation process is highly unreliable.
So we highly recomend to throw away the entire Kibana directory, and start from scratch. Ideally, use ephemeral docker containers.
Need inspiration? Try ROR Docker demo!
To bring Kibana to its pre-patching original state, it's possible to unpatch.
# Un-patch Kibana core files 
$ node/bin/node plugins/readonlyrestkbn/ror-tools.js unpatch
​
# Uninstall normally
$ bin/kibana-plugin remove readonlyrestkbn
And the classic uninstall command...
$ bin/kibana-plugin remove readonlyrest_kbn
Upgrading
To upgrade to a new version of a ReadonlyREST plugins for Kibana, you should:
​Unpatch Kibana​
​Uninstall the old plugin
​Install the new one
​Patch Kibana​
Restart Kibana
Major version upgrades when using multi-tenancy
If you use multi-tenancy (Enterprise only), you will have one or more teanancy-specific kibana indices beyond the main .kibana (e.g. .kibana_tenant1, .kibana_tenant2, etc.).
The first time you run Kibana after a major version upgrade (e.g. upgrading from Kibana 7.17.7 to Kibana 8.0.0), Kibana will run a saved objects migration on the default .kibana index, or whatever it finds configured as kibana.index in kibana.yml.
Now, because you may have multiple kibana indices containing saved objects, you should apply the "saved object migration" to those indices as well.
The only known safe - yet pedantic - way to do this is the following process:
Preparation
download the newer Kibana version in your computer (in the example, 8.0.0)
edit the kibana.yml to point to the same Elasticsearch cluster as your production Kibana (elasticsearch.hosts setting)
add the appropriate elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password credentials settings, same as in production
For each tenancy index
configure kibana.yml with a kibana.index: <tenancy kibana index>
run Kibana for a few seconds, until you see something similar to these log lines:
  [savedobjects-service] Waiting until all Elasticsearch nodes are compatible with Kibana before starting saved objects migrations...
  [savedobjects-service] Starting saved objects migrations
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana] INIT -> CREATE_NEW_TARGET. took: 27ms.
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana_task_manager] INIT -> CREATE_NEW_TARGET. took: 29ms.
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana_task_manager] CREATE_NEW_TARGET -> MARK_VERSION_INDEX_READY. took: 82ms.
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana] CREATE_NEW_TARGET -> MARK_VERSION_INDEX_READY. took: 95ms.
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana_task_manager] MARK_VERSION_INDEX_READY -> DONE. took: 23ms.
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana_task_manager] Migration completed after 135ms
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana] MARK_VERSION_INDEX_READY -> DONE. took: 20ms.
  [savedobjects-service] [.kibana] Migration completed after 143ms
now Kibana will have migrated the tenancy index, like it did with the main .kibana index.
This is ugly, but the safest way available at the moment.
Using RoR with a reverse proxy
RoR - just like Kibana itself - is meant to be used either with a proxy or without one.
If you decide to set the server.basePath property in kibana.yml and set server.rewriteBasePath into a true, RoR will be accessed directly and via a reverse proxy,
If you decided to rewrite the base path manually by your reverse proxy and set the server.rewriteBasePath property in kibana.yml into a false, be sure to access RoR via a proxy, as it will not work properly when accessed directly.
Configuration
ReadonlyREST for Kibana is completely remote-controlled from the Elasticsearch configuration. Login credentials, hidden Kibana apps, etc. are all going to be configured from the Elasticearch side via the usual "rules". This means the configuration will be kept all in one place and if you used ReadonlyREST before , it will be also very familiar.
In this document, every time you will encounter references to "readonlyrest.yml" or "elasticsearch.yml", we will be referring to the configuration files in the Elasticsearch plugin (our Kibana plugins do not need a "readonlyrest.yml").
In general, by design, we tend to concentrate all configuration within the main plugin (the Elasticsearch one) as much as possible.
Clusterwide Settings VS readonlyrest.yml
This feature is available in Free and PRO editions
Our Kibana plugins introduce a "ReadonlyREST" Kibana app. From here, you can edit the security settings of the whole Elasticsearch cluster, and they will take effect within 10 seconds in all Elasticsearch cluster nodes without the need to restart them.
When you change the security settings from the Kibana app, they will be saved in a special index called ".readonlyrest", so all the Elasticsearch nodes will pick them up. You can customize a name of the index by setting readonlyrest.settings_index: .my_custom_readonlyrest in elasticsearch.yml file (remember to set the same value for all your ES nodes).
When an Elasticsearch node restarts, the order of settings evaluation is the following: 1. Attempt to find valid settings in readonlyrest.yml 2. If none is found, look inside elasticsearch.yml 3. Once successfully bootstrapped using file-based settings, attempt to read ".readonlyrest" index 4. If the index exists and contains valid settings, override file based settings with the ones from the index. 5. Pressing "save" in the cluster wide settings app, will not overwrite the readonlyrest.yml file.
Best practices:
Build and update your production security settings from the Kibana app (will be saved in index)
Protect the ".readonlyrest" Kibana index with an ACL rule
Loading settings: order of precedence
As you read, there are two possible places where the settings can be read from:
readonlyrest.yml a file the user needs to create in the same directory where elasticsearch.yml is found.
.readonlyrest index. Our Kibana plugins' GUI (PRO/Enterprise) is programmed to write this index.
When the ES plugin boots up, it follows some logic to evaluate where to read the YAML settings from. The following diagram shows how that works.
config loading diagram
Malformed in-index settings
If for some reason the in-index settings get corrupted and ROR can't parse them, then neither settings from file or in-index settings can be loaded, so ES can't start. In this case ES would print message like:
Loading ReadonlyREST settings from index failed: Settings config content is malformed. Details: while scanning a quoted scalar
 in 'reader', line 9, column 17:
          auth_key: "admin:container
                    ^
To recover from this state, set readonlyrest.force_load_from_file: true in elasticsearch.yml on one node es1.
Example recovery settings:
elasticsearch.yml
[...]
readonlyrest:
  force_load_from_file: true
readonlyrest.yml
readonlyrest:
​
  access_control_rules:
  - name: "::ADMIN recover::"
    auth_key: admin:dev
    indices: ["*"]
Then remove in-index settings index manually.
curl -X DELETE "admin:[email protected]:9200/.readonlyrest?pretty"
Now you can restore your settings to readonlyrest.yml, remove readonlyrest.force_load_from_file: true from elasticsearch.yml and restart node.
Example: multiuser ELK
This configuration will work in PRO and Enterprise editions
Make sure X-Pack is uninstalled or disabled from elasticsearch.yml (on the Elasticsearch side) and kibana.yml (on the Kibana side): This is how you disable X-pack modules:
# For X-Pack users: you may only leave monitoring on. 
# Don't add this if X-Pack is not installed at all, or Kibana won't start.
xpack.monitoring.enabled: true
xpack.security.enabled: false
xpack.watcher.enabled: false
xpack.telemetry.enabled: false
This is a typical example of configuration snippet to add at the end of your readonlyrest.yml (the settings file of the Elasticsearch plugin), to support ReadonlyREST PRO.
readonlyrest:
​
    access_control_rules:
​
    - name: "::LOGSTASH::"
      auth_key: logstash:logstash
      actions: ["indices:data/read/*","indices:data/write/*","indices:admin/template/*","indices:admin/create"]
      indices: ["logstash-*"]
​
    - name: "::KIBANA-SRV::"
      auth_key: kibana:kibana
​
    - name: "::RO::"
      auth_key: ro:dev
      kibana_access: ro
      indices: [ ".kibana", "logstash-*"]
      kibana_hide_apps: [ "Security", "Enterprise Search"]
​
    - name: "::RW::"
      auth_key: rw:dev
      kibana_access: rw
      indices: [".kibana", "logstash-*"]
      kibana_hide_apps: [ "Security", "Enterprise Search"]
​
​
    - name: "::ADMIN::"
      auth_key: admin:dev
      # KIBANA ADMIN ACCESS NEEDED TO EDIT SECURITY SETTINGS IN ROR KIBANA APP!
      kibana_access: admin
​
    - name: "::WEBSITE SEARCH BOX::"
      indices: ["public"]
      actions: ["indices:data/read/*"]
Very important
ACL blocks ordering matters
Blocks related to the authentication of the users should be at the top of the ACL
One of the most common mistakes is forgetting that the ACL blocks are evaluated in order from the first to the last.
So, some request with credentials can be let through from one of the first blocks and come back to Kibana with no user identity metadata associated.
Take this example of troublesome ACL:
    # PROBLEMATIC SETTINGS (EXAMPLE) ⚠️
​
    access_control_rules:
​
    - name: "::FIRST BLOCK::"
      hosts: ["127.0.0.1"]
      actions: [...]
​
    - name: "::ADMIN::"
      auth_key: admin:dev
      kibana_access: admin
The user will be able to login because the login request will be allowed by the first ACL block. But the ACL will not have resolved any metadata about the user identity (credentials checking was ignored)!
This means the response to the Kibana login request will contain no user identity metadata (username, hidden apps, etc) and ReadonlyREST for Kibana won't be able to function correctly.
The solution to this is to reorder the ACL blocks, so the ones that authenticate Kibana users are on the top.
    # SOLUTION: KIBANA USER AUTH RELATED BLOCKS GO FIRST! ✅👍
​
    access_control_rules:
​
    - name: "::ADMIN::"
      auth_key: admin:dev
      kibana_access: admin
​
    - name: "::FIRST BLOCK::"
      hosts: ["127.0.0.1"]
      actions: [...]
Session cookie expiration
When a user logs in, ReadonlyREST will write an encrypted cookie in the browser. This cookie has an time to live that can be tweaked with the following configuration key in kibana.yml.
readonlyrest_kbn.session_timeout_minutes: 600 # defaults to 4320 (3 days)
Clearing Session History
By default, all the session data like search history, dev tool commands history, etc, will be wiped out from the browser whenever a new user is logged in, or a user changes tenancy. To override this behaviour, use this setting:
readonlyrest_kbn.clearSessionOnEvents: ["never"]
Possible values: "login", "tenancyHop", "never".
No authentication rule defined
The “problem with the configuration of authentication” error message is presented in ReadonlyREST Free/PRO/Enterprise when the login request is checked by the ACL and gets accepted by an ACL block with no authentication rule in it.
An example of this would be:
readonlyrest:
   access_control_rules:
   - name: "LDAP Auth"
     ldap_authentication: ...
   
   - name: "Allow requests from localhost"
     hosts: ["127.0.0.1"]
Imagine you run Elasticsearch and Kibana on the same host:
the Kibana user login request comes to Elasticsearch
Credentials are wrong, and the first block does not match
The second block is then evaluated, and the request is allowed because of its origin IP
As you can see, Elasticsearch has no user related information (metadata) to return to Kibana, and the error “problem with the configuration of authentication ” is shown.
In general, we highly discourage implementing access control using origin IPs alone, users should set up SSL, Basic HTTP auth in their agents in any case, even on localhost. The hosts rule would then be an extra protection.
If this is not possible for very important reasons, then we would prevent any Kibana originated request to match that rule by using the negated form of the headers rule. I.e.
readonlyrest.yml
- name: "Allow requests from localhost"
  hosts: ["127.0.0.1"]
  headers: [ "~x-from-kibana:true" ]
kibana.yml (append)
elasticsearch.customHeaders:  {"x-from-kibana":"true"}
Hiding Kibana Apps
This feature will work in ReadonlyREST PRO and Enteprise.
Previously we needed to keep track and document all Kibana apps IDs, and you had to look them up all the time. Now we made it simpler by letting you type the apps and submenu titles exactly as you see them in the UI.
For example, this is how you hide the whole Enterprise Search submenu.
kibana_hide_apps: ["Enterprise Search"]
And this is how you hide only one app from the Enterprise Search menu:
kibana_hide_apps: ["Enterprise Search|Workplace Search"]
More generally, either of these two ways will work:
kibana_hide_apps: [ "<submenu-title>" ]
kibana_hide_apps: [ "<submenu-title|app-title>" ]
For example the following is a valid rule:
kibana_hide_apps: [ "Security", "Management|Stack Management", "Enterprise Search" ]
There is also a way to use regular expression as a kibana_hidden_apps value
for example, you can hide all submenus except for the specific app
kibana_hide_apps: [ "/^Analytics\\|(?!(Maps)$).*$/"]
In this case, all analytics apps will be hidden except Maps
⚠️IMPORTANT Pipe operator needs to be escaped correctly when it's declared in the regular expression \\|. The regular expression must be declared between double quote "/<regular-expression/"
You can also hide all submenus except specified values
kibana_hide_apps: ["/^(?!(Analytics|Management).*$).*$/"]
In this case everything except of Analytics and Management will submenus will be hidden
⚠️IMPORTANT In this case | is treated ad logical or operator, that's why it shouldn't be escaped
To check all regular expressions available options, check regular expressions syntax cheatsheet​
Hiding ReadonlyREST menu elements
This feature will work in ReadonlyREST PRO and Enteprise.
To hide the Manage kibana button for the specific user you need to provide ROR Manage Kibana value into a kibana_hide_apps
kibana_hide_apps: [ "ROR Manage Kibana" ]
To hide the Edit security settings button for the specific user you need to provide ROR Security Settings or readonlyrest_kbn value into a kibana_hide_apps
kibana_hide_apps: [ "ROR Security Settings" ]
Hiding ReadonlyREST menu elements
Kibana configuration
Activate authentication for the Kibana server: let the Kibana daemon connect to Elasticsearch using a pair of credentials we just defined in readonlyrest.yml (see above, the ::KIBANA-SRV:: block).
Open up conf/kibana.yml and add the following:
# This is kibana.yml, but copy the exact same in elasticsearch.yml if you have to use some X-pack features.
xpack.graph.enabled: false
xpack.ml.enabled: false
xpack.monitoring.enabled: true
xpack.security.enabled: false # this is fundamental!
xpack.watcher.enabled: false
​
# Kibana server use ::KIBANA-SRV:: credentials
elasticsearch.username: "kibana"
elasticsearch.password: "kibana"
And of course also make sure elasticsearch.url points to the designated Elasticsearch instance (check also the http or https)
Proxy Auth
This feature will work in all ReadonlyREST editions.
ROR for Elasticsearch can delegate authentication to a reverse proxy which will enforce some kind of authentication, and pass the successfully authenticated user's name inside a X-Forwarded-User header.
Today, it's possible to skip the regular ROR login form and use the "delegated authentication" technique in ROR for Kibana as well.
1.Configure ROR for ES to expect delegated authentication (see proxy_auth rule) in ROR for ES documentation.
2.Open up conf/kibana.yml and add readonlyrest_kbn.proxy_auth_passthrough: true
Now ROR for Kibana will skip the login form entirely, and will only require that all incoming requests must carry a X-Forwarded-User header containing the user's name. Based on this identity, ROR for Kibana will build an encrypted cookie and handle your session normally.
Custom Logout link
This feature will work in all ReadonlyREST editions.
Normally, when a user presses the logout button in ROR for Kibana, it deletes the encrypted cookie that represents the users identity and the login form is shown.
However, when the authentication is delegated to a proxy, the logout button needs to become a link to some URL capable to unregister the session a user initiated within the proxy.
For this, ROR for Kibana offers a way to customize the logout button's URL:
1.Find a link that will delete the reverse proxy's user session
2.Open up conf/kibana.yml and add readonlyrest_kbn.custom_logout_link: https://..../logout
Now users that gained a session through delegated auth, can also click on the logout button in ROR for kibana and actually exit their session.
Custom Login link
This feature will work in all ReadonlyREST editions.
When you delegate authentication to an external service, you can tell ReadonlyREST to skip the classic login form entirely and redirect users to your proxy or identity provider's login screen.
To enable this:
1.Find your authentication proxy or identity provider login URL for the ROR app
2.Open up conf/kibana.yml and add readonlyrest_kbn.custom_login_link: "https://../login"
The advantage of this approach is a streamlined user experience for users that login with an external IdP. The disadvantage is that you give up the possibility to login as a local user in ROR, as the login form will be always skipped.
Caveat
Enabling proxy auth passthrough will relax the requirement to provide a password. Therefore, don't enable this option if you don't make sure Kibana can only be accessed through the reverse proxy*.
JWT Token Forwarding as URL Query Parameter
This feature will work in all ReadonlyREST editions.
Alternatively to typing in credentials in the standard login form, it is possible to create an authenticated Kibana session by passing a JWT token as a query parameter in a URL.
Configuration
To enable this feature in ReadonlyREST, you need to:
Have JWT authentication configured in ReadonlyREST (modifying readonlyrest.yml or the cluster wide settings UI in the Kibana plugin). See how.
Specify the query parameter name in kibana.yml by adding the line readonlyrest_kbn.jwt_query_param: "jwt" as a string, in our case "jwt".
In Action
Once Kibana is restarted, you will be able to navigate to a link like this:
http://kibana:5601/login?jwt=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWV9.TJVA95OrM7E2cBab30RMHrHDcEfxjoYZgeFONFh7HgQ
The following will happen:
1.The Kibana plugin will forward the JWT token found in the query parameter into the Authorization header in a request to Elasticsearch.
2.Elasticsearch will cryptographically authenticate and resolve the user's identity from the JWT claims.
3.Kibana will write an encrypted cookie in your browser and use that from now on for the length of the authenticated session. From here onwards, the session management will be identical to the normal login form flow.
4.When the user presses logout, Kibana will delete the cookie and redirect you to the login form, or whatever link you configured as readonlyrest_kbn.custom_logout_link.
Deep linking with JWT
Because the identity is embedded in the link, and ReadonlyREST is able to authenticate the call on the fly, the JWT authentication can be used in conjunction with nextUrl query parameter for sharing deep links inside Kibana apps, or embedding visualizations and dashboards inside I-Frames.
Anatomy of a JWT deep link
http://kibana:5601/login?jwt=<the-token>&nextUrl=urlEncode(<kibana-path>)
In Javascript one can compose a JWT deep link as follows:
var absoluteKibanaPath = '/app/kibana#/visualize/edit/28dcde30-2258-11e8-82a3-af58d04b3c02?_g=()';
​
var url = 'http://kibana:5601/login?jwt=' + 
           jwtToken + 
           '&nextUrl=' + 
           encodeURI(absoluteKibanaPath);
​
console.log("Final JWT deep link: " + url)
The result may look something like this:
http://localhost:5601/login?nextUrl=%2Fapp%2Fkibana%23%2Fvisualize%2Fedit%2F28dcde30-2258-11e8-82a3-af58d04b3c02%3F_g%3D%28%29&jwt=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWV9.TJVA95OrM7E2cBab30RMHrHDcEfxjoYZgeFONFh7HgQ
SSL/TLS server
You can configure Kibana with ReadonlyREST plugin to accept SSL connection the same way you would with vanilla Kibana configuration. For example, in kibana.yml:
server.ssl.enabled: true
server.ssl.keystore.path: "/usr/share/kibana/config/certificates/kibana-server.p12"
server.ssl.keystore.password: ""
server.ssl.supportedProtocols: ["TLSv1.2", "TLSv1.3"]
Secure cookies
ReadonlyREST will set the "secure" flag to its Kibana session cookie ("ror-cookie") automatically when SSL is enabled in Kibana.

This is because modern browsers like Chrome won't accept "secure"-flagged cookies if the website is not HTTPS).
However, a common situation is when SSL is configured in a reverse proxy (SSL termination): so the browser will interact with Kibana using HTTPS. But because ROR doesn't know it, it will still serve session cookies without the "secure" flag.

In this case, you can force ReadonlyREST to create "secure"-flagged cookies by adding this line in kibana.yml:
xpack.security.secureCookies: true 
Audit log
This feature will work in all ReadonlyREST editions.
The audit log feature is widely described in 📖docs for Elasticsearch plugin. Kibana plugin has predefined dashboard representing collected audit data.
Loading visualization
In the Audit tab of the ReadonlyREST Kibana app, there is a button that automatically creates a dashboard with some audit log specific visualizations.
audit log tab
Click the Load button to load the dashboard and visualizations. An Override checkbox allows to reload the default dashboard and visualizations. It will override any previously loaded audit log dashboard.
loading visualization
In detail, this feature creates three Kibana "saved objects":
an index pattern for readonlyrest_audit-*
a dashboard called ReadonlyREST Audit Log
some visualizations
Dashboard
The audit log dashboard, by default, has only a few basic visualizations. They cover security, access logs, and performance metrics.
SAML
This feature will work in ReadonlyREST Enterprise.
ReadonlyREST Enterprise supports service provider initiated via SAML. This connector supports both SSO (single sign on) and SLO (single log out). Here is how to configure it.
Configure ror_kbn_auth bridge
In order for the user identity information to flow securely from Kibana to Elasticsearch, we need to set up the two plugin with a shared secret, that is: an arbitrarily long string.
Elasticsearch side
Edit readonlyrest.yml
readonlyrest:
    access_control_rules:
​
    - name: "::KIBANA-SRV::"
      auth_key: kibana:kibana
​
    ... all usual blocks of rules...
​
    - name: "ReadonlyREST Enterprise instance #1"
      ror_kbn_auth:
        name: "kbn1"
​
    ror_kbn:
    - name: kbn1
      signature_key: "my_shared_secret_kibana1_(min 256 chars)" # <- use environmental variables for better security!
⚠️IMPORTANT the Basic HTTP auth credentials for the Kibana server are still needed for now, due to how Kibana works.
Kibana side
Edit kibana.yml and append:
readonlyrest_kbn.auth:
  signature_key: "my_shared_secret_kibana1(min 256 chars)"
  saml_serv1:
    enabled: true
    type: saml
    issuer: ror
    buttonName: "Partner's SSO Login"
    entryPoint: 'https://my-saml-idp/saml2/http-post/sso' # <-- identity Provider's URL, to request to sign on
    kibanaExternalHost: 'my.public.hostname.com' # <-- public URL used by the Identity Provider to call back Kibana with the "assertion" message
    protocol: http # <-- is the Kibana server listening for "http" "https" connections? Default: http
    usernameParameter: 'nameID'
    groupsParameter: 'memberOf'
    logoutUrl: 'https://my-saml-idp/saml2/http-post/slo'
    cert: /etc/ror/integration/certs/dag.crt # <-- It can be also provided a string value 
    
    # OPTIONAL, advanced parameters
    # decryptionCert: /etc/ror/integration/certs/pub.crt
    # decryptionPvk: /etc/ror/integration/certs/decrypt_pvk.crt
    # issuer: saml_sso_idp
issuer: issuer string to supply to identity provider during sign on request. Defaults to 'ror'
disableRequestedAuthnContext: if truthy, do not request a specific authentication context. This is known to help when authenticating against Active Directory (AD FS) servers.
decryptionPvk: Service Provider Private Key. Private key that will be used to attempt to decrypt any encrypted assertions that are received.
cert: The downloadable certificate in IDP Metadata (file, absolute path) or single line string value
For advanced SAML options, see passport-saml documentation.
Identity provider side
1.Enter the settings of your identity provider, create a new app.
2.Configure it using the information found by connecting to http://my.public.hostname.com/ror_kbn_saml_serv1/metadata.xml
Example response:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<EntityDescriptor xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata" xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" entityID="onelogin_saml" ID="onelogin_saml">
  <SPSSODescriptor protocolSupportEnumeration="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:protocol">
    <SingleLogoutService Binding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" Location="http://my.public.hostname.com/ror_kbn/notifylogout"/>
    <NameIDFormat>urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress</NameIDFormat>
    <AssertionConsumerService index="1" isDefault="true" Binding="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:bindings:HTTP-POST" Location="http://my.public.hostname.com/ror_kbn/assert"/>
  </SPSSODescriptor>
</EntityDescriptor>
1.Create some users and some groups in the identity provider app
2.Check the user profile parameter names that the identity provider uses during the assertion callback ( TIP: set kibana in debug mode so ReadonlyREST will print the user profile).
3.Match the name of the parameter used by the identity provider to carry the unique user ID (in the assertion message) to the usernameParameter kibana YAML setting.
4.If you want to use SAML for authorization, take care of matching also the groupsParameter to the parameter name found in the assertion message to the kibana YAML setting.
OpenID Connect (OIDC)
This feature will work in ReadonlyREST Enterprise.
ReadonlyREST Enterprise support OpenID Connect for both authentication and authorization.
Here is how to configure it.
Configure ror_kbn_auth bridge
This part is identical as seen in SAML connectors. In order for the user identity information to flow securely from Kibana to Elasticsearch, we need to set up the two plugin with a shared secret, that is: an arbitrarily long string.
Elasticsearch side
Edit readonlyrest.yml
readonlyrest:
    access_control_rules:
​
    - name: "::KIBANA-SRV::"
      auth_key: kibana:kibana
​
    ... all usual blocks of rules...
​
    - name: "ReadonlyREST Enterprise instance #1"
      ror_kbn_auth:
        name: "kbn1"
​
    ror_kbn:
    - name: kbn1
      signature_key: "my_shared_secret_kibana1_(min 256 chars)" # <- use environmental variables for better security!
⚠️IMPORTANT the Basic HTTP auth credentials for the Kibana server are still needed for now, due to how Kibana works.
If you have configured OIDC with the groupsParameter ( See below ), you can also restrict ACL to specific groups:
readonlyrest:
    access_control_rules:
​
    - name: "::KIBANA-SRV::"
      auth_key: kibana:kibana
​
    ... all usual blocks of rules...
​
    - name: "ReadonlyREST Enterprise instance #1 for group 1"
      ror_kbn_auth:
        name: "kbn1"
        groups: ["group1"]
​
    - name: "ReadonlyREST Enterprise instance #1 for group 2"
      ror_kbn_auth:
        name: "kbn1"
        groups: ["group2"]
​
    ror_kbn:
    - name: kbn1
      signature_key: "my_shared_secret_kibana1_(min 256 chars)" # <- use environmental variables for better security!
You may also use any custom claim from the OIDC userinfo token in ACL rules by using {{jwt:assertion.<path_to_your_claim>}} syntax. See the dedicated section for more information. ( TIP : Do not forget the assertion prefix in front of you jsonpath. )
Kibana side
We will assume the OpenID identity provider responds to port 8080 of localhost. In our example, we used Keycloak, an open source implementation of OpenID Connect identity provide.
Edit kibana.yml and append:
readonlyrest_kbn.auth:
  signature_key: "my_shared_secret_kibana1(min 256 chars)"
  oidc_kc: 
    buttonName: "KeyCloak OpenID"
    type: "oidc"
    issuer: 'http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/ror'
    authorizationURL: 'http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/ror/protocol/openid-connect/auth'
    tokenURL: 'http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/ror/protocol/openid-connect/token'
    userInfoURL: 'http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/ror/protocol/openid-connect/userinfo'
    clientID: 'ror_oidc'
    clientSecret: '9f1d39c8-a211-460a-84b6-0a4a1499c455'
    scope: 'openid profile roles role_list email'
    usernameParameter: 'preferred_username'
    groupsParameter: 'groups'
    kibanaExternalHost: 'localhost:5601'
    logoutUrl: 'http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/ror/protocol/openid-connect/logout'
    jwksURL: 'http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/ror/protocol/openid-connect/certs'
Identity provider side
1.Enter the settings interface of your identity provider, and create a new OpenID app .
2.The redirect URL should be configured as http://localhost:5601/* assuming kibana is listening on localhost and on the default port.
3.Create some users and some groups in the identity provider if not present.
4.Check the user profile parameter names that the identity provider uses during the assertion callback ( TIP: set readonlyrest_kbn.logLevel: debug` in kibana.yml, so you will see the user profile how it's received from the identity provider right in the logs).
5.Match the name of the parameter used by the identity provider to carry the unique user ID (in the assertion message) to the usernameParameter kibana YAML setting.
6.If you want to use OpenID for authorization, take care of matching also the groupsParameter to the parameter name found in the assertion message to the kibana YAML setting. ( TIP: the groupsParameter must be present in the userinfo token of your OIDC provider.)
7.If kibana is accessed through a reverse proxy, kibanaExternalHost should be configured with the external hostname. if omitted, the default value is equals to server.host:server.port defined in kibana.yml. ( This parameter can be used also when kibana is bound to 0.0.0.0, for example, if using docker.)
Load balancers
These features will work with all ReadonlyREST Editions
Enable health check endpoint
Normally a load balancer needs a health check URL to see if the instance is still running, you can whitelist this Kibana path so the load balancer avoids a redirection to /login.
Edit kibana.yml
readonlyrest_kbn.whitelistedPaths: [".*/api/status$"]
Session management with multiple Kibana instances
Each Kibana node stores user sessions in-memory. This will cause problems when using multiple Kibana instances behind a load balancer (especially without sticky sessions), as there would be no synchronization between nodes' sessions cache. To avoid this, session synchronization via an Elasticsearch index should be enabled. Follow these steps:
1.Come up with a string of at least 32 characters length or more to be used as the shared cookie encryption key, called cookiePass.
2.Open up conf/kibana.yml and add:
readonlyrest_kbn.cookiePass: "generatedStringIn1step" (example: "12345678901234567890123456789012")
readonlyrest_kbn.cookieName (custom cookie name - this property is optional, if not specified default cookie name would be rorCookie)
readonlyrest_kbn.store_sessions_in_index: true (enable session storage in index)
readonlyrest_kbn.sessions_index_name: "someCustomIndexName" (index name - this property is optional, if not specified default index would be .readonlyrest_kbn_sessions)
readonlyrest_kbn.sessions_refresh_after: 5000 (time in milliseconds, describes how often sessions should be fetched from ES and refreshed for each node - optional, by default 2 seconds)
readonlyrest_kbn.sessions_probe_interval_seconds: 120 (default 60s) how often should the browser poll Kibana to check if their session is still valid. Raise this value if you connect to Kibana through slow networks (i.e. VPN), or have very slow loading dashboards.
3.Add the above config in all Kibana nodes behind the load balancer, and restart them.
Login screen tweaking
These features will work with ReadonlyREST PRO and Enterprise.
It is possible to customize the look of the login screen.
Two column layout
By default,the login form appears in a single column view. 
​
But once title and subtitle are configured, it will switch to two columns for making room to the new text.
readonlyrest_kbn.login_title: "Some Title"
readonlyrest_kbn.login_subtitle: "Longer text <b>any HTML is supported<b/> including ifrmaes"
two columns
Add your company logo
It's recommended to use a transparent PNG, negative logo. Ideally a white foreground, and transparent background.
Open config/kibana.yml and append the following:
readonlyrest_kbn.login_custom_logo: 'https://.../logo.png'
Add custom CSS/JS
You have the opportunity to inject HTML code right before the closing head tag (</head>).
Open config/kibana.yml and append the following:
readonlyrest_kbn.login_html_head_inject: '<style> * { color:red; }</style>'
Kibana UI tweaking
This feature will work with Readonlyrest Enterprise
It's possible to inject custom CSS and Javascript to achieve a customised user experience for your users/tenants.
Inject custom CSS in Kibana
Open config/kibana.yml and append the following:
readonlyrest_kbn.kibana_custom_css_inject: '.global-nav, kbnGlobalNav { background-color: green }'
Alternatively, it's possible to load the CSS from a file in the filesystem:
readonlyrest_kbn.kibana_custom_css_inject_file: '/tmp/custom.css'
⚠️IMPORTANT If you use relative paths, you end up pointing to kibana home, i.e. readonlyrest_kbn.kibana_custom_css_inject_file: 'config/custom.css' will refer to $KBN_HOME/config/custom.css which is the same directory where kibana.yml can normally be found.
Inject custom JS in Kibana
readonlyrest_kbn.kibana_custom_js_inject: '$(".global-nav__logo").hide(); alert("hello!")'
Alternatively, it's possible to load the JS from a file in the filesystem:
readonlyrest_kbn.kibana_custom_js_inject_file: '/tmp/custom.js'
⚠️IMPORTANT If you use relative paths, you end up pointing to kibana home, i.e. readonlyrest_kbn.kibana_custom_js_inject: 'config/custom.js' will refer to $KBN_HOME/config/custom.js which is the same directory where kibana.yml can normally be found.
Map groups to aliases
You can provide a function, mapping group names to aliases of your choosing. To do so, add the following line to config/kibana.yml:
readonlyrest_kbn.groupsMapping: '(group) => group.toLowerCase()'
⚠️IMPORTANT The mapping function has to return a string. Otherwise, an error will be printed in kibana logs and the original group name will be used as fallback. Also, if the mapping function is not specified, the original group name value will be used.
Tenancy index templating
This feature will work only with ReadonlyREST Enterprise
When a tenants logs in for the first time, ReadonlyREST Enterprise will create the ".kibana" index associated to the tenancy. For example, it will create and initialize the ".kibana_user1" index, where "user1" will store all the visualizations, dashboards, settings and index-patterns.
The issue is that "user1"'s user experience will be really raw as they will see a completely blank Kibana tenancy. Not even a default index pattern will be present. And this is particularly challenging if the tenant is supposed to be read-only (i.e. kibana_access: "ro") because they won't even have privileges to create their own index-pattern, let alone any dashboards.
To fix this, ReadonlyREST Enterprise offers the possibility for administrators to create a template kibana index from which all the Kibana objects will be copied over to the newly initialised tenancy.
How to use tenancy templating
An administrator will need to create the template tenancy, populate it with the default Kibana objects (index-patterns, dashboards) and configure ReadonlyREST Enterprise to take the index template it in use. Let's see this step by step:
Create the template tenancy
Let's start to add to our access control list (found in $ES_PATH_CONF/config/readonlyrest.yml, or ReadonlyREST App in Kibana) a local user "administrator" that will belong to two tenancies: the default one (stored in .kibana index), and the template one (stored in .kibana_template index).
readonlyrest:
  audit_collector: true
​
  access_control_rules:
​
  - name: "::KIBANA-SRV::"
    auth_key: kibana:kibana
    verbosity: error
​
  - name: "Admin Tenancy"
    groups: ["Admins"]
    verbosity: error
    kibana_access: admin
    kibana_index: ".kibana"
​
  - name: "Template Tenancy"
    groups: ["Template"]
    verbosity: error
    kibana_access: admin
    kibana_index: ".kibana_template"
​
 users:
 - username: administrator
   auth_key: administrator:dev
   groups: ["Admins", "Template"] # can hop between two tenancies with top-left drop-down menu