Security

Application Without Authentication

srussellnpr
Explorer

Could I create an application in splunk that requires no authentication? Since splunk already lives on our intranet, I'd like to give users access to dashboards without requiring them to log in.

Tags (1)

southeringtonp
Motivator

Yes. There are a few things you can do.

Here's an example site (from the guys who do the SplunkTalk podcast):
     http://bit.ly/splunktalkanalytics

Take a look at this video blog post:
     http://blogs.splunk.com/2010/09/27/video-glimpse-into-splunktalk-podcast-analytics-insecure-login-da...


The gist is that you can use "insecure" authentication, and embed login credentials into the URL. Then, create a dedicated role for that user, giving it access to on the indexes, search commands, etc. that it actually needs. Maybe even assign a search filter. Also, create a dedicated search app, with just the dashboards you need, and make that the default for the user. Using a separate, stripped-down search head can also help limit your attack surface.

If you want to use always-on displays, the timeouts can be a problem as well, so see this thread:
     http://answers.splunk.com/questions/7233/user-specific-browser-session-timeout

Remember the common tradeoffs between security and usability apply, so doing this of course involves a bit of additional risk. Provided you're ok with that, this should get you started.

srussellnpr
Explorer

You're awesome southeringtonp!

0 Karma

woodcock
Esteemed Legend

The first 2 links are dead; is there an archive anywhere?

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Make Your Machine Data AI-Ready in Splunk

Every team is getting ready for AI agents.   Thursday, November 12, 2026  |  11AM  PST / 2PM EST   ...

Splunk Asynchronous Forwarding Explained

Splunk asynchronous forwarding is often misunderstood as simply setting autoLBVolume. That is not quite right. ...

How to Monitor AI Agents with Splunk Agent Observability

Let’s say I’m running a travel planning AI app in production. A user asks for three concise hotel options in ...