# Secure communications? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 25, 2018, 12:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458 "2018-07-25T00:52:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sjaak01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sjaak01](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sjaak01)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 12:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/1 "2018-07-25T00:52:12Z")
Hi, How do I apply ssl/https secure communications on elastic cloud? I have a Kibana instance running on a EC2 instance connecting to a elastic instance in the elastic cloud. kibana.yml on the EC2 instance: > elasticsearch.url: "[https://mycloudid.found.io:9243](https://mycloudid.found.io:9243)" > elasticsearch.username: "elastic" > elasticsearch.password: "password" > xpack.security.enabled: true Allows me to connect to the cloud instance but I don't think this actually secures the communication? I looked at the documentation but its not clear on how to set up secure communications on 6.3 and the elastic cloud. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2018, 12:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/2 "2018-07-25T00:53:44Z")
If you are using a HTTPS url then it's using SSL/TLS. Or is that not what you want? ---
**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:** [July 25, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/3 "2018-07-25T01:06:24Z")
That should be what you want, although we discourage the use of the `elastic` user within Kibana. That use can do _everything_ on your cluster, so if there's some sort of security hole in Kibana, or your config file gets leaked then you are giving away the credentials for a user than can modifiy/delete everything in your cluster. ---
**Author:** ![Sjaak01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sjaak01](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sjaak01)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/4 "2018-07-25T01:20:43Z")
No that is exactly what I want. I just don't remember it being that easy. Last time I used xpack was under 5.4 and I remember having to do a lot more to get https working. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly. @TimV What are the minimum permissions the user configured in kibana.yml needs for Kibana to work? I did a quick test with a new user and it seems at least the kibana\_system role needs to be assigned? ---
**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:** [July 25, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/5 "2018-07-25T01:53:56Z")
In a standard install, the `kibana` user (which has the `kibana_system`) role is the user you should use for kibana's `elasticsearch.username` setting. For cloud, it's probably easiest to create your own user, and just assign them the `kibana_system` role. That will give you exactly the permissions you need, and will get automatically upgraded to have any new permissions that are required if your ES version changes. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 7:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/6 "2018-07-25T07:24:43Z")
> [@Sjaak01](#): > > I have a Kibana instance running on a EC2 instance connecting to a elastic instance in the elastic cloud. But I don't understand. Why do you want to do this? Elastic cloud has also Kibana built in. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2018, 7:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/7 "2018-07-25T07:45:23Z")
@dadoonet > [@X-pack cloud & remote Kibana instances?](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/x-pack-cloud-remote-kibana-instances/141291): > > Hi, If I have Elasticsearch running in a Elastic cloud instance, can I run a Kibana instance on a different server but still use all the x-pack features? I want to achieve some sort of multi tenancy and it looks like multiple Kibana instances is the only way to do that at the moment without having to do any additional programming on my end. However our cloud instance is small enough to receive the X-pack for free so we don't have a license to just install on our own server along with several K… ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 8:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/8 "2018-07-25T08:19:17Z")
Thanks @TimV. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 8:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/secure-communications/141458/9 "2018-08-22T08:19:17Z")
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