# Security Exception while trying to open all indices
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/security-exception-while-trying-to-open-all-indices/157272
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Tags:** elastic-stack-security
**Created:** [November 19, 2018, 6:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/security-exception-while-trying-to-open-all-indices/157272 "2018-11-19T06:07:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elango-mas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Elango-mas)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2018, 6:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/security-exception-while-trying-to-open-all-indices/157272/1 "2018-11-19T06:07:04Z")
Hi,
While trying snapshot and restore, unfortunately I closed all the indices after taking snapshot. Now I am trying to open all the indices but getting a security exception.
$ curl --cacert 'certificate\_path' -u "elastic:xxxxxxxxx" -XPOST "https://node\_name:9200/\*/\_open?pretty"
{
"error" : {
"root\_cause" : [
{
"type" : "security\_exception",
"reason" : "failed to authenticate user [elastic]",
"header" : {
"WWW-Authenticate" : "Basic realm="security" charset="UTF-8""
}
}
],
"type" : "security\_exception",
"reason" : "failed to authenticate user [elastic]",
"header" : {
"WWW-Authenticate" : "Basic realm="security" charset="UTF-8""
}
},
"status" : 401
}
How do i open all the indices now?
---
### Author:  [@TimV](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/TimV)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2018, 6:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/security-exception-while-trying-to-open-all-indices/157272/2 "2018-11-19T06:43:04Z")
Did you close the `.security` index?
Don't do that.
You'll need to create an alternative `superuser` in the file realm.
Assuming you haven't modified the default realm setup, then you just need to run this on one of your nodes.
```auto
bin/x-pack/users useradd admin -r superuser -p changeme
sleep 5
curl --cacert 'certificate_path' -u "admin:changeme" -XPOST "https://localhost:9200/.security*/_open"
```
That should open the security index again, and you can then work with the `elastic` user as normal.
At the end, remove the `admin` user with:
```auto
bin/x-pack/users userdel admin
```
---
### Author:  [@Elango-mas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Elango-mas)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2018, 9:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/security-exception-while-trying-to-open-all-indices/157272/3 "2018-11-29T09:40:56Z")
Thanks Tim, Working fine...
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2018, 9:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/security-exception-while-trying-to-open-all-indices/157272/4 "2018-12-27T09:40:56Z")
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