elastic/kibana

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

Open

#60,337 opened on Mar 16, 2020

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 (2 comments) (1 reaction) (0 assignees)TypeScript (19,065 stars) (8,021 forks)batch import
Feature:Security/AuthenticationTeam:Securityenhancementgood first issue

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

Tech stack
typescriptnodejs
Domain
frontendauthentication
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
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.
clear
Prerequisites
Familiarity with Kibana's license checkingUnderstanding of SAML realm error handling
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Start by examining the SAML realm error handling code in x pack/plugins/security/server/saml/ or similar. The issue mentions that Elasticsearch logs a clear message but Kibana returns a generic 401. Look for where license checks are performed before using SAML realm. The goal is to intercept the license violation and return a user friendly error message in the UI. Check the SamlBaseRestHandler referenced in the ES log and see how Kibana can detect the license state and render an appropriate error page.