Kibana plugin: Own Home

Adds multi-tenancy feature to Kibana.

Each user has own kibana.index.

This plugin enables a user to have own personal kibana.index so that objects the user created are stored to separate location from others. And also group shared kibana.index can be provided. A user can switch kibana.index depending on the situation by selecting on the plugin interface. Available kibana.index list will be generated based on username, local group definition in kibana.yml, and LDAP roles.

Background

In the case of single Kibana instance shared among many users/groups, all objects (searches, vizualizations, dashboards) are stored to the same kibana.index. This means that any user can access, modify, and also delete all objects. In multi-user environment, in order to protect own objects from others or share part of objects among a group, kibana.index separation is one of the solutions.

How it works

This plugin starts up a proxy server with port 19200 on the same host of Kibana. And the proxy server intercepts ElasticSearch request in order to replace kibana.index with specified one.

• Kibana runs behind of a reverse proxy web server such httpd/nginx.
• User is required authentication at the web server.
• The web server sets authenticated username to x-proxy-user header and passes the user's request to Kibana with the header.
• On the Kibana plugin interface, a user can set kibana.index and it is saved to session.
• All requests to ElasticSearch are intercepted by this plugin, and kibana.index is replaced based on session information.

Usage

• Install this plugin.
• Set up front end web server.
• Access your front end web server and log in.
• Click Own Home tab on Kibana web interface.
• Select one of tenants (kibana.index).
• Go back to Discover, Visualize, Dashboard pages.

Prerequirement

• A reverse proxy server such as httpd, nginx is required as a front end of Kibana.
• Authentication is required at the server.
• After the authentication the server passes user's requests to Kibana with x-proxy-user header which contains username.

Example of httpd configuration with Basic authentication

RewriteEngine on
SSLProxyEngine on
RewriteRule  ^/?(.*)$ https://localhost:5601/$1 [L,P]
RequestHeader set X-Proxy-User %{REMOTE_USER}s
<Location />
  SSLRequireSSL
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Basic Authentication"
  AuthUserFile /path/to/htpasswd
  Require valid-user
</Location>

Installation

Important: Before setting up own-home, you should take a backup of your kibana.yml if you wish to remove the plugin in future.

• Kibana 7

bin/kibana-plugin install https://github.com/wtakase/kibana-own-home/releases/download/v7.1.1/own_home-7.1.1.zip

Options

Available options and default values are as follows:

own_home.proxy_user_header: x-proxy-user
own_home.remote_user: '' <-- specify how to fetch username (session, header, or authorization)
own_home.get_username_from_session.enabled: false
own_home.get_username_from_session.key: username
own_home.default_kibana_index_suffix: ''
own_home.ssl.certificate: '' <-- specify this elasticsearch proxy's server cert location if necessary
own_home.ssl.key: '' <-- specify this elasticsearch proxy's server key location if necessary
own_home.elasticsearch.url: http://localhost:9200
own_home.elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: '' <-- specify your elasticsearch cert's CA cert location if necessary
own_home.session.secretkey: the-password-must-be-at-least-32-characters-long
own_home.session.isSecure: true
own_home.session.timeout: 3600000
own_home.local.enabled: true
own_home.local.groups: [ public, sandbox ]
own_home.ldap.enabled: false
own_home.ldap.url: ldap://localhost:389
own_home.ldap.userbase: ou=People,dc=localhost
own_home.ldap.rolebase: ou=Groups,dc=localhost
own_home.ldap.search_filter: '(cn=*)'
own_home.ldap.username_attribute: cn
own_home.ldap.rolename_attribute: cn
own_home.ldap.adfs: false
own_home.ldap.member_attribute: member <-- member or memberUid or uniquemember
own_home.ldap.get_dn_dynamically: false <-- if true, get the user's DN dynamically by using ldap.username_attribute
own_home.ldap.bind.dn: ''
own_home.ldap.bind.password: ''
own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.enabled: false
own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.proxy.url: http://localhost:15601
own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.proxy.ssl.certificate: '' <-- specify this kibana proxy's server cert location if necessary
own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.proxy.ssl.key: '' <-- specify this kibana proxy's server cert location if necessary
own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.kibana.ssl.verificationMode: true
own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.kibana.ssl.certificateAuthorities: '' <-- specify your kibana cert's CA cert location if necessary
own_home.force_to_access_by_es_user: false <-- override authorization header to force to access by elasticsearch.username

Examples of configuration

Minimum configuration (for test)

Assume the following situation:

• Front end web server runs at http://localhost:80 and sends username by x-proxy-user header.
• Kibana runs at http://localhost:5601.
• This proxy server runs at http://localhost:19200.
• ElasticSearch runs at http://localhost:9200.
• Each user has own kibana.index.
• .kibana_common01 and .kibana_common02 are shared among all users.

Set kibana.yml as follows:

xpack.spaces.enabled: false    <-- Space feature is not supported.
elasticsearch.hosts: ["http://localhost:19200"]
elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist: [ x-proxy-user, cookie ]
own_home.session.secretkey: the-password-must-be-at-least-32-characters-long
own_home.session.isSecure: false
own_home.local.groups: [ common01, common02 ]

Configuration with LDAP

Assume the following situation:

• Front end web server runs at https://localhost:443 and sends username by remote-user header.
• Kibana runs at https://localhost:5601.
• This proxy server runs at https://localhost:19200.
• LDAP server runs at ldap://localhost:389.
• ElasticSearch runs at https://localhost:9200.
• Each user has own kibana.index.
• .kibana_public and .kibana_sandbox are shared among all users.
• Users belong to the same LDAP group can share group kibana.index.

Set kibana.yml as follows:

xpack.spaces.enabled: false    <-- Space feature is not supported.
elasticsearch.hosts: ["http://localhost:19200"]
elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: /path/to/this/proxy/server/cert/CA.crt
elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist: [ remote-user, cookie ]
own_home.proxy_user_header: remote-user
own_home.ssl.certificate: /path/to/this/proxy/server.crt
own_home.ssl.key: /path/to/this/proxy/server.key
own_home.elasticsearch.url: https://localhost:9200
own_home.elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: /path/to/elasticsearch/server/cert/CA.crt
own_home.session.secretkey: the-password-must-be-at-least-32-characters-long
own_home.local.groups: [ public, sandbox ]
own_home.ldap.enabled: true
own_home.ldap.url: ldap://localhost:389
own_home.ldap.userbase: ou=People,dc=localhost
own_home.ldap.rolebase: ou=Groups,dc=localhost
own_home.ldap.search_filter: '(cn=*)'
own_home.ldap.username_attribute: cn
own_home.ldap.rolename_attribute: cn

Change own home port

You can use any port instead of 19200. If you set as follows, the proxy port will be 19201.

elasticsearch.hosts: ["http://localhost:19201"]

Extract username from session instead of request header (Experimental)

By default, Own home fetches username from HTTP request header such as x-proxy-user. get_username_from_session.enabled and get_username_from_session.key options enable to fetch from session. In this case, you don't need to set up a front end server.

Here is an example of integration with search-guard-kibana-plugin:

xpack.spaces.enabled: false    <-- Space feature is not supported.
server.defaultRoute: /app/own_home
elasticsearch.hosts: ["http://localhost:19200"]
elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist: [ cookie, authorization ]
elasticsearch.username: kibanaserver
elasticsearch.password: kibanaserver
elasticsearch.ssl.verify: false
own_home.get_username_from_session.enabled: true
own_home.get_username_from_session.key: username
own_home.session.isSecure: false
own_home.elasticsearch.url: http://localhost:9200
own_home.session.secretkey: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
searchguard.cookie.secure: false
searchguard.cookie.password: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Use explicit kibana.index in URL feature (Experimental)

This enables to display current kibana.index in URL, so that it is possible users to know it explicitly.

Configure your httpd as follows:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule  ^/?(.*)$ http://localhost:15601/$1 [L,P]
RequestHeader set X-Proxy-User %{REMOTE_USER}e
<Location />
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Basic Authentication"
  AuthUserFile /path/to/htpasswd
  Require valid-user
</Location>

Add the following line to kibana.yml:

own_home.explicit_kibana_index_url.enabled: true

Example: Work on .kibana_public:

Access => http://frontendserver/public/app/kibana

Set default kibana.index by URL

You can specify kibana.index in URL as follows:

• front_end_server/app/own_home#/KIBANA_INDEX_SUFFIX
• front_end_server/app/own_home#/KIBANA_INDEX_SUFFIX/TAB
• front_end_server/app/own_home#/KIBANA_INDEX_SUFFIX/TAB/OBJECT_ID

Example 1. Set .kibana_public as kibana.index

Access => front_end_server/app/own_home#/public

Example 2. Set .kibana_public as kibana.index and then go to dashboard tab

Access => front_end_server/app/own_home#/public/dashboard

Example 3. Set .kibana_public as kibana.index and then open xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx dashboard

Access => front_end_server/app/own_home#/public/dashboard/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Contribute

Build instructions

• Clone the Kibana repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/elastic/kibana
$ cd kibana/

• Checkout the target Kibana version branch/tag.

$ git checkout v5.6.4

• Install Kibana Nodejs environment and dependencies.

$ nvm install `cat .node-version`
$ npm install

• Setup Own Home as a plugin inside the Kibana repo.

$ cd plugins/
$ git clone https://github.com/wtakase/kibana-own-home
$ cd kibana-own-home/

• Checkout the target Kibana version branch/tag.

$ git checkout v5.6.4

• Install Own Home dependencies.

$ npm install --legacy-bundling

• Finally build the Own Home plugin file.

$ npm run build

Following all the steps should generate the own_home-5.6.4.zip Kibana plugin zip file under Own Home build/ directory.

Removing the plugin

Remove plugin and replace kibana.yml

• Remove own-home plugin

$ bin/kibana-plugin remove own_home

• Replace kibana.yml with the backed-up one to make Kibana run again without own-home

Now, restart Kibana and youl'll have it running without own-home.