Authentication basics in Elasticsearch - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What is the output of this Elasticsearch authentication request?

Given the following Elasticsearch request using basic authentication, what will be the HTTP status code in the response if the credentials are correct?

Elasticsearch

GET /_security/_authenticate

A 403

B 401

C 200

D 500

💡 Hint

Successful authentication returns HTTP 200 OK.

When the username and password are correct, Elasticsearch returns HTTP status 200 indicating successful authentication.

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What error does this Elasticsearch request raise with missing authentication header?

What error will Elasticsearch return if you send a request to a secured cluster without any authentication header?

Elasticsearch

GET /_cluster/health

A 401 Unauthorized

B 200 OK

C 403 Forbidden

D 404 Not Found

💡 Hint

Missing authentication usually results in 401 Unauthorized.

Elasticsearch secured clusters require authentication. Without credentials, it returns 401 Unauthorized.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

Which authentication method is supported natively by Elasticsearch for REST API?

Elasticsearch supports several authentication methods. Which one is supported natively for REST API calls without plugins?

A Basic Authentication with username and password

B OAuth 2.0 Bearer Tokens

C SAML Single Sign-On

D API Key with JWT signature

💡 Hint

Elasticsearch supports basic authentication out of the box.

Elasticsearch natively supports Basic Authentication using username and password for REST API calls. Other methods require plugins or external systems.

❓ Predict Output

advanced

What is the output of this API key authentication request?

Given this curl command using an API key for authentication, what will be the HTTP status code if the API key is invalid?

Elasticsearch

curl -H 'Authorization: ApiKey invalid_api_key' -X GET 'https://localhost:9200/_security/_authenticate'

A 400 Bad Request

B 200 OK

C 403 Forbidden

D 401 Unauthorized

💡 Hint

Invalid API keys cause 401 Unauthorized errors.

If the API key is invalid, Elasticsearch returns 401 Unauthorized indicating authentication failure.

🚀 Application

expert

How many roles are assigned to the user after this authentication response?

Given this Elasticsearch authentication response JSON, how many roles does the authenticated user have?

Elasticsearch

{
  "username": "admin",
  "roles": ["superuser", "monitoring_user", "kibana_user"],
  "full_name": "Admin User",
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "metadata": {},
  "enabled": true
}

A 4

B 3

C 1

D 0

💡 Hint

Count the items in the roles array.

The roles array contains three strings, so the user has 3 roles assigned.