Introduction
Elasticsearch has rapidly—and deservedly—established itself as a popular choice for enterprise application developers. The one negative associated with the highly capable distributed open-source search and log analytics engine is that it has garnered headlines for security hiccups. This reputation for security is arguably undeserved. I think it says more about the fact that organizations too often fail to treat Elasticsearch security with the respect required for any data storage solution. With the proper attention and an accurate understanding of Elasticsearch’s specific needs, the technology can be made sufficiently secure for enterprise needs.
The basic default Elasticsearch configuration lacks enterprise-grade security features. This combination—a simple deployment that’s just as easy to then ignore when it comes to subsequent security hardening—can easily lead to lax access restrictions and data protection. And, it has, as those aforementioned headlines have shown over the past couple of years. But, by implementing enterprise-grade security and adhering to best practices, enterprises can eliminate the errors that put Elasticsearch data in peril.