Detections requirements

To use the Detections feature, you first need to configure a few settings. You also need the appropriate license to send notifications when detection alerts are generated.

Important

Several steps are only required for self-managed Elastic Stack deployments. If you’re using an Elastic Cloud deployment, you only need to enable detections.

Additionally, there are some advanced settings used to configure Kibana value list upload limits.

Configure self-managed Elastic Stack deployments ¶

These steps are only required for self-managed deployments:

HTTPS must be configured for communication between Elasticsearch and Kibana.
In the elasticsearch.yml configuration file, set the xpack.security.enabled setting to true. For more information, refer to Configuring Elasticsearch and Security settings in Elasticsearch.
In the kibana.yml configuration file, add the xpack.encryptedSavedObjects.encryptionKey setting with any alphanumeric value of at least 32 characters. For example: xpack.encryptedSavedObjects.encryptionKey: 'fhjskloppd678ehkdfdlliverpoolfcr'

Important

After changing the xpack.encryptedSavedObjects.encryptionKey value and restarting Kibana, you must restart all detection rules.

Enable and access detections ¶

To use the Detections feature, it must be enabled, your role must have access to rules and alerts, and your Kibana space must have Data View Management feature visibility. If your role doesn’t have the cluster and index privileges needed to enable this feature, you can request someone who has these privileges to visit your Kibana space, which will turn it on for you.

Note

For instructions about using machine learning jobs and rules, refer to Machine learning job and rule requirements.

Important

In Elastic Stack version 8.0.0, the .siem-signals-<space-id> index was renamed to .alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>. Detection alert indices are created for each Kibana space. For the default space, the alerts index is named .alerts-security.alerts-default. If you’re upgrading to 8.0.0 or later, users should have privileges for the .alerts-security.alerts-<space-id> AND .siem-signals-<space-id> indices. If you’re newly installing the Elastic Stack, then users do not need privileges for the .siem-signals-<space-id> index.

The following table describes the required privileges to access the Detections feature, including rules and alerts. For more information on Kibana privileges, refer to Feature access based on user privileges.

Action	Cluster Privileges	Index Privileges	Kibana Privileges
Enable detections in your space	`manage`	`manage`, `write`, `read`, and `view_index_metadata` for these system indices and data streams, where `<space-id>` is the space name: * `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` * `.siem-signals-<space-id>` 1 * `.lists-<space-id>` * `.items-<space-id>` 1 NOTE: If you’re upgrading to Elastic Stack 8.0.0 or later, users should have privileges for the `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` AND `.siem-signals-<space-id>` indices. If you’re newly installing the Elastic Stack, then users do not need privileges for the `.siem-signals-<space-id>` index.	`All` for the `Security` feature
Enable detections in all spaces NOTE: To turn on detections, visit the Rules and Alerts pages for each space.	`manage`	`manage`, `write`, `read`, and `view_index_metadata` for these system indices and data streams: * `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` * `.siem-signals-<space-id>` 1 * `.lists-<space-id>` * `.items-<space-id>` 1 NOTE: If you’re upgrading to Elastic Stack 8.0.0 or later, users should have privileges for the `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` AND `.siem-signals-<space-id>` indices. If you’re newly installing the Elastic Stack, then users do not need privileges for the `.siem-signals-<space-id>` index.	`All` for the `Security` feature
Preview rules	N/A	`read` for these indices: * `.preview.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` * `.internal.preview.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>-*`	`All` for the `Security` feature
Manage rules	N/A	`manage`, `write`, `read`, and `view_index_metadata` for these system indices and data streams, where `<space-id>` is the space name: * `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id` * `.siem-signals-<space-id>`1 * `.lists-<space-id>` * `.items-<space-id>` 1 NOTE: If you’re upgrading to Elastic Stack 8.0.0 or later, users should have privileges for the `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` AND `.siem-signals-<space-id>` indices. If you’re newly installing the Elastic Stack, then users do not need privileges for the `.siem-signals-<space-id>` index.	`All` for the `Security` feature NOTE: You need additional `Action and Connectors` feature privileges (Management → Action and Connectors) to manage rules with actions and connectors: * To provide full access to rule actions and connectors, give your role `All` privileges. With `Read` privileges, you can edit rule actions, but will have limited capabilities to manage connectors. For example, `Read` privileges allow you to add or remove an existing connector from a rule, but does not allow you to create a new connector. * To import rules with actions, you need at least `Read` privileges for the `Action and Connectors` feature. To overwrite or add new connectors, you need `All` privileges for the `Actions and Connectors` feature. To import rules without actions, you don’t need `Actions and Connectors` privileges.
Manage alerts NOTE: Allows you to manage alerts, but not modify rules.	N/A	`maintenance`, `write`, `read`, and `view_index_metadata` for these system indices and data streams, where `<space-id>` is the space name: * `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` * `.internal.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>-` `.siem-signals-<space-id>`1 * `.lists-<space-id>` * `.items-<space-id>` 1 NOTE: If you’re upgrading to Elastic Stack 8.0.0 or later, users should have privileges for the `.alerts-security.alerts-<space-id>` AND `.siem-signals-<space-id>` indices. If you’re newly installing the Elastic Stack, then users do not need privileges for the `.siem-signals-<space-id>` index.	`Read` for the `Security` feature
Create the `.lists` and `.items` data streams in your space NOTE: To initiate the process that creates the data streams, you must visit the Rules page for each appropriate space.	`manage`	`manage`, `write`, `read`, and `view_index_metadata` for these data streams, where `<space-id>` is the space name: * `.lists-<space-id>` * `.items-<space-id>`	`All` for the `Security` and `Saved Objects Management` features

Here is an example of a user who has the Detections feature enabled in all Kibana spaces:

Shows user with the Detections feature enabled in all Kibana spaces

Authorization ¶

Rules, including all background detection and the actions they generate, are authorized using an API key associated with the last user to edit the rule. Upon creating or modifying a rule, an API key is generated for that user, capturing a snapshot of their privileges. The API key is then used to run all background tasks associated with the rule including detection checks and executing actions.

Important

If a rule requires certain privileges to run, such as index privileges, keep in mind that if a user without those privileges updates the rule, the rule will no longer function.

Configure list upload limits ¶

You can set limits to the number of bytes and the buffer size used to upload value lists to Elastic Security.

To set the value:

Open kibana.yml configuration file or edit your Kibana cloud instance.
Add any of these settings and their required values:
- xpack.lists.maxImportPayloadBytes: Sets the number of bytes allowed for uploading Elastic Security value lists (default 9000000, maximum 100000000). For every 10 megabytes, it is recommended to have an additional 1 gigabyte of RAM reserved for Kibana. For example, on a Kibana instance with 2 gigabytes of RAM, you can set this value up to 20000000 (20 megabytes).
- xpack.lists.importBufferSize: Sets the buffer size used for uploading Elastic Security value lists (default 1000). Change the value if you’re experiencing slow upload speeds or larger than wanted memory usage when uploading value lists. Set to a higher value to increase throughput at the expense of using more Kibana memory, or a lower value to decrease throughput and reduce memory usage.

Note

For information on how to configure Elastic Cloud deployments, refer to Add Kibana user settings.