kibana/x-pack/legacy/plugins/actions

Kibana actions

The Kibana actions plugin provides a framework to create executable actions. You can:

• Register an action type and associate a JavaScript function to run when actions are executed.
• Get a list of registered action types
• Create an action from an action type and encrypted configuration object.
• Get a list of actions that have been created.
• Execute an action, passing it a parameter object.
• Perform CRUD operations on actions.

Terminology

Action Type: A programatically defined integration with another service, with an expected set of configuration and parameters properties, typically defined with a schema. Plugins can add new action types.

Action: A configuration object associated with an action type, that is ready to be executed. The configuration is persisted via Saved Objects, and some/none/all of the configuration properties can be stored encrypted.

Usage

1. Develop and register an action type (see action types -> example).
2. Create an action by using the RESTful API (see actions -> create action).
3. Use alerts to execute actions or execute manually (see firing actions).

Kibana Actions Configuration

Implemented under the Actions Config.

Configuration Options

Built-In-Actions are configured using the xpack.actions namespoace under kibana.yml, and have the following configuration options:

Namespaced Key	Description	Type
xpack.actions.enabled	Feature toggle which enabled Actions in Kibana. Currently defaulted to false while Actions are experimental.	boolean
xpack.actions.WhitelistedHosts	Which hostnames are whitelisted for the Built-In-Action? This list should contain hostnames of every external service you wish to interact with using Webhooks, Email or any other built in Action. Note that you may use the string "*" in place of a specific hostname to enable Kibana to target any URL, but keep in mind the potential use of such a feature to execute SSRF attacks from your server.	Array

Configuration Utilities

This module provides a Utilities for interacting with the configuration.

Method	Arguments	Description	Return Type
isWhitelistedUri	uri: The URI you wish to validate is whitelisted	Validates whether the URI is whitelisted. This checks the configuration and validates that the hostname of the URI is in the list of whitelisted Hosts and returns true if it is whitelisted. If the configuration says that all URI's are whitelisted (using an "*") then it will always return true.	Boolean
isWhitelistedHostname	hostname: The Hostname you wish to validate is whitelisted	Validates whether the Hostname is whitelisted. This checks the configuration and validates that the hostname is in the list of whitelisted Hosts and returns true if it is whitelisted. If the configuration says that all Hostnames are whitelisted (using an "*") then it will always return true.	Boolean
ensureWhitelistedUri	uri: The URI you wish to validate is whitelisted	Validates whether the URI is whitelisted. This checks the configuration and validates that the hostname of the URI is in the list of whitelisted Hosts and throws an error if it is not whitelisted. If the configuration says that all URI's are whitelisted (using an "*") then it will never throw.	No return value, throws if URI isn't whitelisted
ensureWhitelistedHostname	hostname: The Hostname you wish to validate is whitelisted	Validates whether the Hostname is whitelisted. This checks the configuration and validates that the hostname is in the list of whitelisted Hosts and throws an error if it is not whitelisted. If the configuration says that all Hostnames are whitelisted (using an "*") then it will never throw	No return value, throws if Hostname isn't whitelisted

Action types

Methods

server.plugins.actions.registerType(options)

The following table describes the properties of the options object.

Property	Description	Type
id	Unique identifier for the action type. For convention, ids starting with . are reserved for built in action types. We recommend using a convention like <plugin_id>.mySpecialAction for your action types.	string
name	A user-friendly name for the action type. These will be displayed in dropdowns when chosing action types.	string
unencryptedAttributes	A list of opt-out attributes that don't need to be encrypted. These attributes won't need to be re-entered on import / export when the feature becomes available. These attributes will also be readable / displayed when it comes to a table / edit screen.	array of strings
validate.params	When developing an action type, it needs to accept parameters to know what to do with the action. (Example to, from, subject, body of an email). See the current built-in email action type for an example of the state-of-the-art validation. Technically, the value of this property should have a property named validate() which is a function that takes a params object to validate and returns a sanitized version of that object to pass to the execution function. Validation errors should be thrown from the validate() function and will be available as an error message	schema / validation function
validate.config	Similar to params, a config is required when creating an action (for example host, port, username, and password of an email server).	schema / validation function
executor	This is where the code of an action type lives. This is a function gets called for executing an action from either alerting or manually by using the exposed function (see firing actions). For full details, see executor section below.	Function

Important - The config object is persisted in ElasticSearch and updated via the ElasticSearch update document API. This API allows "partial updates" - and this can cause issues with the encryption used on specified properties. So, a validate() function should return values for all configuration properties, so that partial updates do not occur. Setting property values to null rather than undefined, or not including a property in the config object, is all you need to do to ensure partial updates won't occur.

Executor

This is the primary function for an action type. Whenever the action needs to execute, this function will perform the action. It receives a variety of parameters. The following table describes the properties that the executor receives.

executor(options)

Property	Description
config	The decrypted configuration given to an action. This comes from the action saved object that is partially or fully encrypted within the data store. If you would like to validate the config before being passed to the executor, define validate.config within the action type.
params	Parameters for the execution. These will be given at execution time by either an alert or manually provided when calling the plugin provided execute function.
services.callCluster(path, opts)	Use this to do Elasticsearch queries on the cluster Kibana connects to. This function is the same as any other callCluster in Kibana. NOTE: This currently authenticates as the Kibana internal user, but will change in a future PR.
services.savedObjectsClient	This is an instance of the saved objects client. This provides the ability to do CRUD on any saved objects within the same space the alert lives in. The scope of the saved objects client is tied to the user in context calling the execute API or the API key provided to the execute plugin function (only when security isenabled).
services.log(tags, [data], [timestamp])	Use this to create server logs. (This is the same function as server.log)

Example

The built-in email action type provides a good example of creating an action type with non-trivial configuration and params: x-pack/legacy/plugins/actions/server/builtin_action_types/email.ts

RESTful API

Using an action type requires an action to be created that will contain and encrypt configuration for a given action type. See below for CRUD operations using the API.

POST /api/action: Create action

Payload:

Property	Description	Type
description	A description to reference and search in the future. This value will be used to populate dropdowns.	string
actionTypeId	The id value of the action type you want to call when the action executes.	string
config	The configuration the action type expects. See related action type to see what attributes are expected. This will also validate against the action type if config validation is defined.	object
secrets	The secrets the action type expects. See related action type to see what attributes are expected. This will also validate against the action type if secrets validation is defined.	object

DELETE /api/action/{id}: Delete action

Params:

Property	Description	Type
id	The id of the action you're trying to delete.	string

GET /api/action/_find: Find actions

Params:

See the saved objects API documentation for find. All the properties are the same except that you cannot pass in type.

GET /api/action/{id}: Get action

Params:

Property	Description	Type
id	The id of the action you're trying to get.	string

GET /api/action/types: List action types

No parameters.

PUT /api/action/{id}: Update action

Params:

Property	Description	Type
id	The id of the action you're trying to update.	string

Payload:

Property	Description	Type
description	A description to reference and search in the future. This value will be used to populate dropdowns.	string
config	The configuration the action type expects. See related action type to see what attributes are expected. This will also validate against the action type if config validation is defined.	object
secrets	The secrets the action type expects. See related action type to see what attributes are expected. This will also validate against the action type if secrets validation is defined.	object

POST /api/action/{id}/_execute: Execute action

Params:

Property	Description	Type
id	The id of the action you're trying to execute.	string

Payload:

Property	Description	Type
params	The parameters the action type requires for the execution.	object

Firing actions

The plugin exposes an execute function that you can use to run actions.

server.plugins.actions.execute(options)

The following table describes the properties of the options object.

Property	Description	Type
id	The id of the action you want to execute.	string
params	The params value to give the action type executor.	object
spaceId	The space id the action is within.	string
apiKey	The Elasticsearch API key to use for context. (Note: only required and used when security is enabled).	string

Example

This example makes action 3c5b2bd4-5424-4e4b-8cf5-c0a58c762cc5 send an email. The action plugin will load the saved object and find what action type to call with params.

server.plugins.actions.execute({
  id: '3c5b2bd4-5424-4e4b-8cf5-c0a58c762cc5',
  spaceId: 'default', // The spaceId of the action
  params: {
    from: 'example@elastic.co',
    to: ['destination@elastic.co'],
    subject: 'My email subject',
    body: 'My email body',
  },
});

Built-in Action Types

Kibana ships with a set of built-in action types:

• server log: logs messages to the Kibana log using server.log()
• email: send an email
• slack: post a message to a slack channel
• index: index document(s) into elasticsearch

server log, action id: .log

The params properties are modelled after the arguments to the Hapi.server.log() function.

config properties

Property	Description	Type
-	This action has no config properties.	-

params properties

Property	Description	Type
message	The message to log.	string
tags	Tags associated with the message to log.	string[] (optional)

email, action id: .email

This action type uses nodemailer to send emails.

config properties

Either the property service must be provided, or the host and port properties must be provided. If service is provided, host, port and secure are ignored. For more information on the gmail service value specifically, see the nodemailer gmail documentation.

The secure property defaults to false. See the nodemailer TLS documentation for more information.

The from field can be specified as in typical "user@host-name" format, or as "human name <user@host-name>" format. See the nodemailer address documentation for more information.

Property	Description	Type
service	the name of a well-known email service provider	string (optional)
host	host name of the service provider	string (optional)
port	port number of the service provider	number (optional)
secure	whether to use TLS with the service provider	boolean (optional)
user	userid to use with the service provider	string
password	password to use with the service provider	string
from	the from address for all emails sent with this action type	string

params properties

There must be at least one entry in the to, cc and bcc arrays.

The message text will be sent as both plain text and html text. Additional function may be provided later.

The to, cc, and bcc array entries can be in the same format as the from property described in the config object above.

Property	Description	Type
to	list of to addressees	string[] (optional)
cc	list of cc addressees	string[] (optional)
bcc	list of bcc addressees	string[] (optional)
subject	the subject line of the email	string
message	the message text	string

slack, action id: .slack

This action type interfaces with the Slack Incoming Webhooks feature. Currently the params property message will be used as the text property of the Slack incoming message. Additional function may be provided later.

config properties

Property	Description	Type
webhookUrl	the url of the Slack incoming webhook	string

params properties

Property	Description	Type
message	the message text	string

index, action id: .index

The config and params properties are modelled after the Watcher Index Action. The index can be set in the config or params, and if set in config, then the index set in the params will be ignored.

config properties

Property	Description	Type
index	The Elasticsearch index to index into.	string (optional)

params properties

Property	Description	Type
index	The Elasticsearch index to index into.	string (optional)
doc_id	The optional _id of the document.	string (optional)
execution_time_field	The field that will store/index the action execution time.	string (optional)
refresh	Setting of the refresh policy for the write request	boolean (optional)
body	The documument body/bodies to index.	object or object[]

Command Line Utility

The kbn-action tool can be used to send HTTP requests to the Actions plugin. For instance, to create a Slack action from the .slack Action Type, use the following command:

$ kbn-action create .slack "post to slack" '{"webhookUrl": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/T0000/B0000/XXXX"}'
{
    "type": "action",
    "id": "d6f1e228-1806-4a72-83ac-e06f3d5c2fbe",
    "attributes": {
        "actionTypeId": ".slack",
        "description": "post to slack",
        "config": {}
    },
    "references": [],
    "updated_at": "2019-06-26T17:55:42.728Z",
    "version": "WzMsMV0="
}