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Enable Access Control

Overview

Enabling access control on a MongoDB deployment enforces authentication, requiring users to identify themselves. When accessing a MongoDB deployment that has access control enabled, users can only perform actions as determined by their roles.

The following tutorial enables access control on a standalone mongod instance and uses the default authentication mechanism. For all supported authentication mechanisms, see Authentication Mechanisms.

User Administrator

With access control enabled, ensure you have a user with userAdmin or userAdminAnyDatabase role in the admin database. This user can administrate user and roles such as: create users, grant or revoke roles from users, and create or modify customs roles.

Procedure

The following procedure first adds a user administrator to a MongoDB instance running without access control and then enables access control.

Note

The example MongoDB instance uses port 27017 and the data directory /var/lib/mongodb directory . The example assumes the existence of the data directory /var/lib/mongodb. Specify a different data directory as appropriate.

1

Start MongoDB without access control.

Start a standalone mongod instance without access control.

Open a terminal and run the following command as the mongod user:

mongod --port 27017 --dbpath /var/lib/mongodb

The mongod instance in this tutorial uses port 27017 and the /var/lib/mongodb data directory.

The tutorial assumes that the /var/lib/mongodb directory exists and is the default dbPath. You may specify a different data directory or port as needed.

Tip

When mongod starts, it creates some system files in the /var/lib/mongodb directory. To ensure the system files have the correct ownership, follow this tutorial as the mongod user. If you start mongod as the root user you will have to update file ownership later.

2

Connect to the instance.

For example, open a new terminal and connect a mongo shell to the instance:

mongo --port 27017

Specify additional command line options as appropriate to connect the mongo shell to your deployment, such as --host.

3

Create the user administrator.

From the mongo shell, add a user with the userAdminAnyDatabase role in the admin database. Include additional roles as needed for this user. For example, the following creates the user myUserAdmin in the admin database with the userAdminAnyDatabase role and the readWriteAnyDatabase role.

use admin
db.createUser(
  {
    user: "myUserAdmin",
    pwd: "abc123",
    roles: [ { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }, "readWriteAnyDatabase" ]
  }
)

Note

The database where you create the user (in this example, admin) is the user’s authentication database. Although the user would authenticate to this database, the user can have roles in other databases; i.e. the user’s authentication database does not limit the user’s privileges.

4

Re-start the MongoDB instance with access control.

  1. Shut down the mongod instance. For example, from the mongo shell, issue the following command:

    db.adminCommand( { shutdown: 1 } )
    
  2. Exit the mongo shell.

  3. Start the mongod with access control enabled.

Clients that connect to this instance must now authenticate themselves as a MongoDB user. Clients can only perform actions as determined by their assigned roles.

5

Connect and authenticate as the user administrator.

Using the mongo shell, you can:

  • Connect with authentication by passing in user credentials, or
  • Connect first withouth authentication, and then issue the db.auth() method to authenticate.

Start a mongo shell with the :option:-u <username> <mongo -u>`, -p, and the --authenticationDatabase <database> command line options:

mongo --port 27017 -u "myUserAdmin" --authenticationDatabase "admin" -p

Enter your password when prompted. In this example, abc123.

Connect the mongo shell to the mongod:

mongo --port 27017

In the mongo shell, switch to the authentication database (in this case, admin), and use db.auth(<username>, <pwd>) method to authenticate:

use admin
db.auth("myUserAdmin", "abc123" )
6

Create additional users as needed for your deployment.

Once authenticated as the user administrator, use db.createUser() to create additional users. You can assign any built-in roles or user-defined roles to the users.

The following operation adds a user myTester to the test database who has readWrite role in the test database as well as read role in the reporting database.

use test
db.createUser(
  {
    user: "myTester",
    pwd: "xyz123",
    roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "test" },
             { role: "read", db: "reporting" } ]
  }
)

Note

The database where you create the user (in this example, test) is that user’s authentication database. Although the user would authenticate to this database, the user can have roles in other databases; i.e. the user’s authentication database does not limit the user’s privileges.

After creating the additional users, disconnect the mongo shell.

7

Connect to the instance and authenticate as myTester.

After disconnecting the mongo shell as myUserAdmin, reconnect as myTester. You can:

  • Connect with authentication by passing in user credentials, or
  • Connect first without authentication, and then issue the db.auth() method to authenticate.

Start a mongo shell with the -u <username>, -p, and the --authenticationDatabase <database> command line options:

mongo --port 27017 -u "myTester" --authenticationDatabase "test" -p

Enter your password when prompted. In this example, xyz123.

Connect the mongo shell to the mongod:

mongo --port 27017

In the mongo shell, switch to the authentication database (in this case, test), and use db.auth(<username>, <pwd>) method to authenticate:

use test
db.auth("myTester", "xyz123" )
8

Insert a document as myTester.

As myTester, you have privileges to perform read and write operations in the test database (as well as perform read operations in the reporting database). Once authenticated as myTester, insert a document into a collection in test database. For example, you can peform the following insert operation in the test database:

db.foo.insert( { x: 1, y: 1 } )

Additional Considerations

Replica Sets and Sharded clusters

Replica sets and sharded clusters require internal authentication between members when access control is enabled. For more details, please see Internal Authentication.

Localhost Exception

You can create users either before or after enabling access control. If you enable access control before creating any user, MongoDB provides a localhost exception which allows you to create a user administrator in the admin database. Once created, you must authenticate as the user administrator to create additional users as needed.