# Permission denied when i'm trying to use elasticsearch command **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** elastic-stack-security\ **Created:** [February 8, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629 "2022-02-08T16:00:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arkoos62](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/arkoos62/32/101179_2.png) [@Arkoos62](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Arkoos62)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/1 "2022-02-08T16:00:18Z")
Hello there, I am trying to configure basic security on my Elasticsearch production but i'm getting error when i try to launch a command from the path /usr/share/Elasticsearch/bin i'm getting this error ```auto ./elasticsearch-env: line 88: /etc/default/elasticsearch: Permission denied ``` here is the "ls -l" : ```auto total 3472 -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 2985 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 501 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-certgen -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 493 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-certutil -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 996 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-cli -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 443 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-croneval -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 5522 Feb 2 14:14 elasticsearch-env -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 1828 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-env-from-file -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 168 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-geoip -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 184 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-keystore -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 450 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-migrate -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 126 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-node -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 176 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-plugin -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 441 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-saml-metadata -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 439 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-service-tokens -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 448 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-setup-passwords -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 118 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-shard -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 483 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-sql-cli -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 3455027 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-sql-cli-7.16.3.jar -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 436 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-syskeygen -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 436 Jan 6 23:48 elasticsearch-users -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 332 Jan 6 23:48 systemd-entrypoint -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 356 Jan 6 23:48 x-pack-env -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 364 Jan 6 23:48 x-pack-security-env -rwxr-xr-x 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 363 Jan 6 23:48 x-pack-watcher-env ``` Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Arkoos62](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/arkoos62/32/101179_2.png) [@Arkoos62](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Arkoos62)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/2 "2022-02-08T16:01:13Z")
i forgot to precise that i'm on ubuntu 20.04 and this is the 7.16.3 version of ES ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/3 "2022-02-08T21:36:40Z")
What user are you running this command as? ---
**Author:** ![Arkoos62](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/arkoos62/32/101179_2.png) [@Arkoos62](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Arkoos62)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/4 "2022-02-10T14:04:10Z")
I tried to su Elasticsearch but i still see my default user on the shell and it still doesn’t work ---
**Author:** ![wsouza](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/wsouza/32/92547_2.png) [@wsouza](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wsouza)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/5 "2022-02-10T14:23:47Z")
Checks who owns this directory (/etc/default/elasticsearch) and if not elasticsearch, assigns permission to this user and group: **sudo chown -R elasticsearch:elasticsearch /etc/default/elasticsearch** Alternatively, run the command below: **sudo chmod +x /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch** With your username, use the **sudo** command to run ./elasticsearch > [@Arkoos62](#): > > `/etc/default/elasticsearch` ---
**Author:** ![Arkoos62](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/arkoos62/32/101179_2.png) [@Arkoos62](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Arkoos62)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 2:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/6 "2022-02-11T14:52:07Z")
> [@Arkoos62](#): > > usr/share/Elasticsearch/bin Ok the directory /etc/default/elasticsearch is owned by the right user and group ```auto -rw-rw---- 1 elasticsearch elasticsearch 1724 Feb 8 15:47 /etc/default/elasticsearch ``` then i run this command like you said : **sudo chmod +x /usr/share/Elasticsearch/bin/Elasticsearch** then i run the command : sudo /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch and i got this error : ```auto OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: Option UseConcMarkSweepGC was deprecated in version 9.0 and will likely be removed in a future release. [2022-02-11T14:43:15,503][ERROR][o.e.b.ElasticsearchUncaughtExceptionHandler] [arkoosnode] uncaught exception in thread [main] org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.StartupException: java.lang.RuntimeException: can not run elasticsearch as root at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:170) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:157) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:77) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:112) ~[elasticsearch-cli-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:77) ~[elasticsearch-cli-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:122) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:80) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: can not run elasticsearch as root at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.initializeNatives(Bootstrap.java:107) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:183) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:434) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:166) ~[elasticsearch-7.16.3.jar:7.16.3] ... 6 more uncaught exception in thread [main] java.lang.RuntimeException: can not run elasticsearch as root at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.initializeNatives(Bootstrap.java:107) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:183) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:434) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:166) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:157) at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:77) at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:112) at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:77) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:122) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:80) For complete error details, refer to the log at /var/log/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.log 2022-02-11 14:43:15,874409 UTC [3267] INFO Main.cc@111 Parent process died - ML controller exiting ``` in the log it tells : **Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: can not run elasticsearch as root** Thanks ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 2:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/permission-denied-when-im-trying-to-use-elasticsearch-command/296629/7 "2022-03-11T14:52:50Z")
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