Configure password hashing

By default, InfluxDB Enterprise uses bcrypt for password hashing. FIPS compliance requires particular hashing alorithms. Use pbkdf2-sha256 or pbkdf2-sha512 for FIPS compliance.

Change password hashing algorithm

Complete the following steps to change the password hashing algorithm used by an existing InfluxDB Enterprise cluster:

1. Ensure all meta and data nodes are running InfluxDB Enterprise 1.10.3 or later.

2. In your meta node and data node configuration files, set password-hash to one of the following: pbkdf2-sha256, or pbkdf2-sha512. Also set ensure-fips to true.

   The meta.password-hash setting must be the same in both the data and meta node configuration files.

3. Restart each meta and data node to load the configuration change.

4. To apply the new hashing algorithm, you must reset all existing passwords in the cluster. Otherwise, the previous algorithm will continue to be used.

Example configuration

Example data node configuration:

[meta]
  # Configures password hashing scheme. Use "pbkdf2-sha256" or "pbkdf2-sha512"
  # for a FIPS-ready password hash. This setting must have the same value as
  # the meta nodes' meta.password-hash configuration.
  password-hash = "pbkdf2-sha256"

  # Configures strict FIPS-readiness check on startup.
  ensure-fips = true

Example meta node configuration:

[meta]
  # Configures password hashing scheme. Use "pbkdf2-sha256" or "pbkdf2-sha512"
  # for a FIPS-ready password hash. This setting must have the same value as
  # the data nodes' meta.password-hash configuration.
  password-hash = "pbkdf2-sha256"

  # Configures strict FIPS-readiness check on startup.
  ensure-fips = true

Using FIPS readiness checks

InfluxDB Enterprise outputs information about the current password hashing configuration at startup. For example:

2021-07-21T17:20:44.024846Z     info    Password hashing configuration: pbkdf2-sha256;rounds=29000;salt_len=16  {"log_id": "0VUXBWE0001"}
2021-07-21T17:20:44.024857Z     info    Password hashing is FIPS-ready: true   {"log_id": "0VUXBWE0001"}

When ensure-fips is enabled, attempting to use password-hash = bcrypt will cause the FIPS check to fail. The node then exits with an error in the logs:

run: create server: passwordhash: not FIPS-ready: config: 'bcrypt'