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Securing Splunk Enterprise
- Install Splunk Enterprise securely
- Create secure administrator credentials
- About TLS encryption and cipher suites
- Securing Splunk Enterprise with FIPS
- About default certificate authentication
- Harden the Splunk Enterprise installation directory on Windows
- Secure Splunk Enterprise on your network
- Disable unnecessary Splunk Enterprise components
- Secure Splunk Enterprise service accounts
- Deploy secure passwords across multiple servers
- Harden the network port that App Key Value Store uses
- Some best practices for your servers and operating system
- Password best practices for administrators
- Configure Splunk password policies
- Configure a Splunk Enterprise password policy using the Authentication.conf configuration file
- Password best practices for users
- Unlock a user account
- Change a user password
- Manage out-of-sync passwords in a search head cluster
- Use access control to secure Splunk data
- About user authentication
- About configuring role-based user access
- Define roles on the Splunk platform with capabilities
- Add and edit users
- Create and manage roles with Splunk Web
- Add and edit roles with authorize.conf
- Configure access to manager consoles and apps in Splunk Enterprise
- Find existing users and roles
- Delete all user accounts on Splunk Enterprise
- Secure access for Splunk knowledge objects
- Use network access control lists to protect your deployment
- Set up user authentication with LDAP
- Manage Splunk user roles with LDAP
- LDAP prerequisites and considerations
- Secure LDAP authentication with transport layer security (TLS) certificates
- How the Splunk platform works with multiple LDAP servers for authentication
- Configure LDAP with Splunk Web
- Map LDAP groups to Splunk roles in Splunk Web
- Configure LDAP using configuration files
- Map LDAP groups and users to Splunk roles using configuration files
- Test your LDAP configuration on Splunk Enterprise
- Change authentication schemes from native to LDAP on Splunk Enterprise
- Remove an LDAP user safely on Splunk Enterprise
- About multifactor authentication with Duo Security
- Configure Splunk Enterprise to use Duo Security multifactor authentication
- Configure Duo multifactor authentication for Splunk Enterprise in the configuration file
- About multifactor authentication with RSA Authentication Manager
- Configure RSA authentication from Splunk Web
- Configure Splunk Enterprise to use RSA Authentication Manager multifactor authentication via the REST endpoint
- Configure Splunk Enterprise to use RSA Authentication Manager multifactor authentication in the configuration file
- User experience when logging into a Splunk instance configured with RSA multifactor authentication
- Configure single sign-on with SAML
- Configure SSO with PingIdentity as your SAML identity provider
- Configure SSO with Okta as your identity provider
- Configure SSO with Microsoft Azure AD or AD FS as your Identity Provider
- Configure SSO with OneLogin as your identity provider
- Configure SSO with Optimal as your identity provider
- Configure SSO in Computer Associates (CA) SiteMinder
- Secure SSO with TLS certificates
- Configuring SAML in a search head cluster
- Configure Ping Identity with leaf or intermediate SSL certificate chains
- Configure SAML SSO for other IdPs
- Configure authentication extensions for SAML tokens
- Configure advanced settings for SSO
- Map groups on a SAML identity provider to Splunk roles
- Modify or remove role mappings
- Configure SAML SSO in the configuration files
- Best practices for using SAML as an authentication scheme for single-sign on
- Troubleshoot SAML SSO
- About securing inter-Splunk communication
- Configure secure communications between Splunk instances with updated cipher suite and message authentication code
- Securing distributed search heads and peers
- Secure deployment servers and clients using certificate authentication
- Secure Splunk Enterprise services with pass4SymmKey
Configure a Splunk Enterprise password policy using the Authentication.conf configuration file
On Splunk Enterprise only, the authentication.conf file lets you create a password policy for users of your Splunk platform instance or deployment. Password policies set standards and minimum requirements for password complexity. The authentication.conf file is not applicable to Splunk Cloud, as you cannot configure the file on Splunk Cloud instances. Instead, use Splunk Web to configure passwords.
The policy you create with the file works with the native authentication scheme for Splunk Enterprise only. Password policies do not apply when you configure the instance to use the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication schemes.
Procedure for creating a password policy using configuration files
- Using a text editor, open the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/authentication.conf file or editing.
- Make edits to the
[splunk_auth]section of the file to set the password policy, using information in the table that follows this procedure. Add or replace settings and assign values to the settings, for exampleminPasswordLength = 8. - Save the file and close it.
- Restart Splunk Enterprise. The password policy comes into effect immediately.
The following table describes the details of each setting:
| Setting | Description | Recommended value | Default value |
|---|---|---|---|
minPasswordLength
|
Specify the minimum ASCII-based alphanumeric or special characters required when a user creates a new password. Splunk Enterprise supports values between 1 and 256 characters. | At least 8 characters | 8 |
minPasswordUppercase
|
The number of uppercase letters required for user passwords. | At least one uppercase letter | 0 |
minPasswordLowercase
|
The number of lowercase letters required for user passwords. | At least one lowercase letter | 0 |
minPasswordSpecial
|
The number of special characters required for user passwords. When this setting is populated, a user can enter any special character except a semicolon. | At least one special character | 0 |
minPasswordDigit
|
The number of numeric characters required for user passwords. Value can be 0 through the length of the password. The total allowed length of the password is 256. Do not create a password comprised of only number. | At least one number | 0 |
expirePasswordDays
|
The number of days before the password expires. Allowed values are 0 to 3650 days. | 90 days | 90 |
expireAlertDays
|
The number of days in advance of password expiration that Splunk software issues user alerts. Allowed values are 0 to 120 days. | 15 days | 15 |
expireUserAccounts
|
Whether or not password expiration is turned on. | True | False |
forceWeakPasswordChange
|
Whether or not the Splunk platform forces users to change weak passwords the next time they log in. | True | False |
lockoutUsers
|
Whether or not the Splunk platform locks users out after a number of failed login attempts. When this setting is on, user lockout is local to each search head peer in a search cluster configuration. Search head cluster members do not replicate lockout status to other members. | True | True |
lockoutMins
|
The number of minutes that a user must wait before attempting to log in again after a lockout. The user is locked out after entering an incorrect password more times than specified in the lockoutAttempts value in the lockoutThresholdMins setting. Supported values are 1 - 1440 minutes.
When this setting is enabled on members of a search head cluster, user lockout applies to individual members, not the entire cluster. |
At least 30 minutes | 30 |
lockoutAttempts
|
The number of unsuccessful logins a user can attempt before the Splunk platform locks them out. The unsuccessful login attempts must occur within lockoutThresholdMins minutes. Supported values are 1 - 64 login attempts.
When enabled on members of a search head cluster, user lockout applies to the single search head peer, not the entire cluster. |
At least 5 attempts | 5 |
lockoutThresholdMins
|
The number of minutes that must pass from the time of the first failed login before the failed login attempt counter resets. Supported values are 1 - 120 minutes.
When this setting is enabled on members of a search head cluster, user lockout applies to the single search head peer, not the entire cluster. |
At least 5 minutes | 5 |
enablePasswordHistory
|
Whether or not the Splunk platform keeps a user's password history. If you disable this value and and enable it later, previously saved password history is preserved. Delete $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/opasswd to remove the password history.
|
True | False |
passwordHistoryCount
|
The number of passwords that the Splunk platform stores in its password history for each user. If you enable password history and provide a number such as 25, then the user is not able to reuse their previous 25 passwords. Supported values are 1 - 128 stored passwords. | 24 stored passwords | 24 |
| Configure Splunk password policies | Password best practices for users |
This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.1.4, 7.1.5, 7.1.6, 7.1.7, 7.1.8, 7.1.9, 7.1.10, 7.2.0, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.2.3, 7.2.4, 7.2.5, 7.2.6, 7.2.7, 7.2.8, 7.2.9, 7.2.10, 7.3.0, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.3.4, 7.3.5, 7.3.6, 7.3.7, 7.3.8, 7.3.9, 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.0.4, 8.0.5, 8.0.6, 8.0.7, 8.0.8, 8.0.9, 8.0.10, 8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.1.3, 8.1.4, 8.1.5, 8.1.6, 8.1.7, 8.1.8, 8.1.9, 8.1.10, 8.1.11, 8.1.12, 8.1.13, 8.1.14, 8.2.0, 8.2.1, 8.2.2, 8.2.3, 8.2.4, 8.2.5, 8.2.6, 8.2.7, 8.2.8, 8.2.9, 8.2.10, 8.2.11, 8.2.12, 9.0.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2, 9.0.3, 9.0.4, 9.0.5, 9.0.6, 9.0.7, 9.0.8, 9.0.9, 9.0.10, 9.1.0, 9.1.1, 9.1.2, 9.1.3, 9.1.4, 9.1.5, 9.1.6, 9.1.7, 9.1.8, 9.1.9, 9.2.0, 9.2.1, 9.2.2, 9.2.3, 9.2.4, 9.2.5, 9.2.6, 9.3.0, 9.3.1, 9.3.2, 9.3.3, 9.3.4, 9.4.0, 9.4.1, 9.4.2
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Configure a Splunk Enterprise password policy using the Authentication.conf configuration file
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