# Accessing Elasticsearch System indices via API

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/accessing-elasticsearch-system-indices-via-api/259581>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-security\
**Created:** [December 24, 2020, 10:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/accessing-elasticsearch-system-indices-via-api/259581 "2020-12-24T10:35:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bjur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@bjur](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bjur)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 10:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/accessing-elasticsearch-system-indices-via-api/259581/1 "2020-12-24T10:35:00Z")

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We have a custom setup in place, where Kibana dashboard is accessed via Elasticsearch API, by querying the .kibana index. From the results the Dashboard queries are extracted and used onward.

While testing the upgrade to ELK stack 7 the query to .kibana index returns the deprecation warning.

"this request accesses system indices: [.kibana\_1], but in a future major version, direct access to system indices will be prevented by default"

I have a few questions:

- based on the response I take that access to system indices will be removed in version 8.X?
- "by default" - does it mean it can still be enabled manually?
- Is there a better/proper way of accessing/obtaining the queries in a Kibana dashboard via purely Elasticsearch API(s).

Thank you in advance

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 10:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/accessing-elasticsearch-system-indices-via-api/259581/2 "2021-01-21T10:35:08Z")

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