# What does "A secure connection is required for log in" mean?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-a-secure-connection-is-required-for-log-in-mean/168355>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-security\
**Created:** [February 14, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-a-secure-connection-is-required-for-log-in-mean/168355 "2019-02-14T08:07:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**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:** [February 14, 2019, 9:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-a-secure-connection-is-required-for-log-in-mean/168355/2 "2019-02-14T09:30:17Z")

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It means that you have set [`secureCookies`](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/security-settings-kb.html) to true in `kibana.yml` and you haven't [enabled TLS for http in Kibana](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/configuring-tls.html#configuring-tls).

Setting `secureCookies` means that the session cookie gets the `secure` flag set which means that your browser will _only_ send it over https connections. But the fact that TLS for http is not enabled in Kibana, it means that your browser is not communicating over https with Kibana and as such cannot send the session cookie, leaving Kibana unable to keep you logged in. This is why you get this error up front, so that you can correct your configuration.

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_[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-a-secure-connection-is-required-for-log-in-mean/168355)._