elastic/kibana

Better error handling when SAML realm is not available under current license

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#60,337 opened on Mar 16, 2020

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 (2 comments) (1 reaction) (0 assignees)TypeScript (8,021 forks)batch import
Feature:Security/AuthenticationTeam:Securityenhancementgood first issue

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Description

Currently if the ES license does not allow for SAML realm, Kibana simply throws the error below when launching the base URL for Kibana:

{"statusCode":401,"error":"Unauthorized","message":"Unauthorized"}

The ES logs clearly shows the underlying issue:

[2020-03-16T23:28:12,135][INFO ][o.e.x.s.r.a.s.SamlBaseRestHandler] [node-1] The 'saml' realm is not available under the current license

It will be nice for Kibana to detect this condition and report an intuitive error message to the UI.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Inspect the SAML authentication handler in Kibana server (likely in `x pack/plugins/security/server/authentication/providers/saml.ts`). Find where the generic 401 error is returned and trace how license check errors from Elasticsearch can be caught. Modify the handler to catch the specific license error and return a user friendly message.
Tech stack
typescriptnodejs
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Mostly clear
Prerequisites
GitNode.jsKibana development setup
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70