# Default behavior of xpack.security.enabled

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/default-behavior-of-xpack-security-enabled/133127>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 24, 2018, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/default-behavior-of-xpack-security-enabled/133127 "2018-05-24T10:59:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tim-Erwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tim-Erwin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tim-Erwin)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/default-behavior-of-xpack-security-enabled/133127/1 "2018-05-24T10:59:32Z")

</div>

After upgrading an elasticsearch 2 instance to 5.6.9 I got an error "missing authentication token for REST request". I fixed that by setting "xpack.security.enabled: false".

However, I'm also sucessfully running an elasticsearch 5.3 cluster where I didn't need that setting and still can perform any request without authentication.

Has the default behavior of "xpack.security.enabled" changed in one of the last releases or am I missing something else here?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TimV](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/timv/32/13162_2.png) [@TimV](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/TimV)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/default-behavior-of-xpack-security-enabled/133127/2 "2018-05-24T12:45:08Z")

</div>

The default behaviour for security is dependent on the license type.

I suspect your 5.3 cluster has a Basic license, nd the 5.6.9 cluster has a trial or gold/platinum license

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tim-Erwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tim-Erwin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tim-Erwin)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/default-behavior-of-xpack-security-enabled/133127/3 "2018-05-24T12:57:42Z")

</div>

With both I'm simply using the docker image, no extra license (guess that means "Basic").

---

<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:** [June 21, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/default-behavior-of-xpack-security-enabled/133127/4 "2018-06-21T12:57:46Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.