# Elasticsearch-setup-passwords fails with JsonParseException

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-security\
**Created:** [June 25, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364 "2019-06-25T14:18:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xcitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c77e96/32.png) [@xcitan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xcitan)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364/1 "2019-06-25T14:18:39Z")

</div>

Hi,

i would like to enable security in my cluster with elasticsearch 7.1.1.  
If i execute "elasticsearch-setup-passwords auto" for generating passwords for the built-in users i get the following error:

```
/usr/share/elasticsearch/bin# ./elasticsearch-setup-passwords auto
Exception in thread "main" ElasticsearchParseException[Failed to parse content to map]; nested: JsonParseException[Unexpected character ('<' (code 60)): expected a valid value (number, String, array, object, 'true', 'false' or 'null')
 at [Source: java.io.StringReader@241e8ea6; line: 1, column: 2]];
        at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentHelper.convertToMap(XContentHelper.java:131)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.HttpResponse$HttpResponseBuilder.withResponseBody(HttpResponse.java:55)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.SetupPasswordTool$SetupCommand.responseBuilder(SetupPasswordTool.java:538)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.SetupPasswordTool$SetupCommand.lambda$checkElasticKeystorePasswordValid$1(SetupPasswordTool.java:300)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.CommandLineHttpClient.execute(CommandLineHttpClient.java:126)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.SetupPasswordTool$SetupCommand.checkElasticKeystorePasswordValid(SetupPasswordTool.java:299)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.SetupPasswordTool$AutoSetup.execute(SetupPasswordTool.java:129)
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86)
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124)
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.MultiCommand.execute(MultiCommand.java:77)
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124)
        at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90)
        at org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.authc.esnative.tool.SetupPasswordTool.main(SetupPasswordTool.java:107)
Caused by: com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException: Unexpected character ('<' (code 60)): expected a valid value (number, String, array, object, 'true', 'false' or 'null')
 at [Source: java.io.StringReader@241e8ea6; line: 1, column: 2]
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser._constructError(JsonParser.java:1702)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.base.ParserMinimalBase._reportError(ParserMinimalBase.java:558)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.base.ParserMinimalBase._reportUnexpectedChar(ParserMinimalBase.java:456)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.ReaderBasedJsonParser._handleOddValue(ReaderBasedJsonParser.java:1906)
        at com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.ReaderBasedJsonParser.nextToken(ReaderBasedJsonParser.java:749)
        at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.json.JsonXContentParser.nextToken(JsonXContentParser.java:52)
        at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.AbstractXContentParser.readMap(AbstractXContentParser.java:336)
        at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.AbstractXContentParser.readMap(AbstractXContentParser.java:309)
        at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.AbstractXContentParser.map(AbstractXContentParser.java:264)
        at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentHelper.convertToMap(XContentHelper.java:129)
        ... 12 more

```

Can someone support here please.

KR  
Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jpcarey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jpcarey/32/46668_2.png) [@jpcarey](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpcarey)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364/2 "2019-06-25T18:21:51Z")

</div>

I'd assume the rest request is not returning JSON, which would be rather odd. Trying hitting the endpoint directly with curl to see what the real response is, I'd assume it is not from elasticsearch.

You can use something like this:

```auto
curl -v -X POST "localhost:9200/_security/user/elastic/_password" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{"password" : "s3cr3t"}'

```

[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.1/security-api-change-password.html#\_examples\_80](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.1/security-api-change-password.html#_examples_80)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xcitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c77e96/32.png) [@xcitan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xcitan)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364/3 "2019-07-01T12:59:17Z")

</div>

hi,  
thanks for your response.  
I could change the passwords manually via curl.  
But still wondering why the script doesn´t work.

KR  
Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ikakavas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ikakavas/32/34430_2.png) [@ikakavas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ikakavas)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364/4 "2019-07-01T14:27:55Z")

</div>

One usually runs `elasticsearch-setup-passwords` in order to initially set the password for the internal users (`elastic` being one of them ) . I'm curious as to how changed the password of the `elastic` user when there was no user you could use to authenticate as.

Other than that, I think @jpcarey was spot on in his assumption.

> [@jpcarey](#):
>
> Trying hitting the endpoint directly with curl to see what the real response is, I'd assume it is not from elasticsearch.

Is there any proxy in your environment ?

Keep in mind that `elasticsearch-setup-passwords` is using the configuration from `elasticsearch.yml` to determine where to send the requests to set the passwords so incorrect values for `http.publish_host` or `network.publish_host` would also affect the tool's ability to set the passwords.

Can you share some more details, like what does your configuration looks like, and how did you change the password via curl ( the exact command ) ?

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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:** [July 29, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-setup-passwords-fails-with-jsonparseexception/187364/5 "2019-07-29T14:28:02Z")

</div>

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