---
title: Security
description: Tune InfluxDB 3 Enterprise security for local requirements.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/enterprise/admin/security/
estimated_tokens: 3765
product: InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
version: enterprise
---

# Security

InfluxDB 3 Enterprise includes security features to protect your data and system resources. When you install using DEB or RPM packages, the default `systemd` unit file configures security sandboxing to isolate the database process from the host system. This page explains the filesystem layout, sandboxing directives, and how to customize security settings for your environment.

-   [Linux DEB and RPM](#linux-deb-and-rpm)
    -   [Requirements](#requirements)
    -   [Filesystem layout](#filesystem-layout)
    -   [systemd unit in detail](#systemd-unit-in-detail)
        -   [Default sandbox configuration](#default-sandbox-configuration)
        -   [Site-specific directives](#site-specific-directives)
    -   [Tuning the systemd unit](#tuning-the-systemd-unit)
    -   [systemd references](#systemd-references)

## Linux DEB and RPM

When you install via DEB or RPM on a `systemd`\-enabled system, InfluxDB 3 Enterprise runs in a sandboxed environment configured by the provided `systemd` unit file.

### Requirements

-   A `systemd`\-enabled Linux system
-   `systemd` version 248 or later for full sandbox support (Debian 12+, RHEL 9+, Ubuntu 22.04+)

On older systems, `systemd` logs `Unknown lvalue '<directive>'` and starts the service without sandbox protection.

### Filesystem layout

The provided unit file assumes the following filesystem layout:

-   `/etc/influxdb3`: directory for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise configuration (`0755` permissions with `root:influxdb3` ownership by default)
-   `/etc/influxdb3/influxdb3-enterprise.conf`: TOML configuration file
-   `/usr/bin/influxdb3`: InfluxDB 3 Enterprise binary
-   `/usr/lib/influxdb3/python`: directory containing the embedded interpreter used by the InfluxDB 3 Enterprise processing engine
-   `/var/lib/influxdb3`: writable directory for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
-   `/var/lib/influxdb3/data`: default directory for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise data files when `object-store` is set to `file` (the default for DEB and RPM installations)
-   `/var/lib/influxdb3/plugins`: default directory for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise plugin files
-   `/var/log/influxdb3`: writable directory for logging (unused by default)

If you store sensitive credentials in `/etc/influxdb3`, adjust permissions to `0750` to restrict access.

### `systemd` unit in detail

The unit file is self-documenting. To view the full systemd configuration for the InfluxDB 3 service (`influxdb3-enterprise`), enter the following command:

```bash
systemctl cat influxdb3-enterprise
```

The output is similar to the following:

```console
# /usr/lib/systemd/system/influxdb3-enterprise.service
[Unit]
Description=InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
... <sandbox and other directives> ...

```

#### Default sandbox configuration

The default sandbox configuration provides security isolation without breaking common use cases. The following options are set by default:

##### Basic Security

Defaults for basic security, such as filesystem and user:

-   `StateDirectory=influxdb3` - writable area relative to `/var/lib`
-   `LogsDirectory=influxdb3` - writable area relative to `/var/log` (the unit is configured with `StandardOutput=journal` and `StandardError=journal` by default and will not use this directory)
-   `User=influxdb3`, `Group=influxdb3`, `SupplementaryGroups=` - run InfluxDB 3 Enterprise as the unprivileged `influxdb3:influxdb3` user. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise does not require any special privileges to run and this should always be set to an unprivileged user
-   `UMask=0027` - restrictive default file mode creation mask

##### Limit kernal attack surface

Defaults to limit the kernal attack surface:

-   `SystemCallFilter=@system-service`, `SystemCallArchitectures=native`, `SystemCallFilter=~io_uring_setup keyctl userfaultfd`, and `LockPersonality=true` - basic set of allowed Linux system calls excluding a few unneeded ones that can be abused
-   `RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_INET AF_INET6 AF_UNIX` - limit allowed address families to those needed for basic functionality (such as, IP networking and DNS resolution). Custom processing engine plugins that need kernel socket of route introspection may need to add `AF_NETLINK` to this list
-   `RestrictNamespaces=true` - disallow use of Linux namespaces

##### Limit privileges

Defaults to limit privileges and disallow gaining or inheriting permissions and capabilities (blocks ICMP `ping`, `passwd`):

-   `NoNewPrivileges=true`
-   `RestrictSUIDSGID=true`
-   `CapabilityBoundingSet=`
-   `AmbientCapabilities=`

##### Host protection

Defaults for host protection:

-   `ProtectSystem=strict` - make host files read-only
-   `ProtectHome=true` - disallow access to `/home` (tip: put credentials, configuration, etc in `/etc/influxdb3` or somewhere in `/var/lib/influxdb3` instead)
-   `PrivateTmp=true` - use separate `/tmp` and `/var/tmp` from host
-   `TemporaryFileSystem=/dev/shm:mode=1777` - use separate `/dev/shm` (override with `size=` to limit size too)
-   `PrivateDevices=true` - allow only pseudo devices with no host mount propagation
-   `ProtectKernelLogs=true` - disallow access to the kernel log ring buffer (needed if `PrivateDevices=false`)
-   `PrivateIPC=true` - use separate SysV IPC from host
-   `InaccessiblePaths=...` - disallow well-known system and user services’ named sockets (needed since `AF_UNIX` is allowed)
-   `ProtectProc=invisible` - hide processes not owned by this [user ( `influxdb3:influxdb3`)](#basic-security). This provides strong isolation but means that plugins can’t see other processes on the system, which could affect custom processing engine plugins that require this

#### Site-specific directives

The default configuration omits directives that depend on your environment–for example, the following directives require tuning based on your deployment requirements and resource constraints:

-   `IPAddressDeny` and `IPAddressAllow` for limiting communications by the database and processing engine to certain IP addresses
-   `MemoryHigh` and `MemoryMax` for limiting memory usage (the database process already has configurable controls for memory so this is primarily useful to limit the processing engine)
-   `Nice`, `CPUQuota`, `CPUSchedulingPolicy`, `LimitNPROC`, and `TasksMax` for limiting CPU usage (the database process already has configurable controls for CPU so this is primarily useful to limit the processing engine)
-   `IOWeight`, etc for limiting I/O operations (primarily useful for limiting the processing engine)
-   `ReadOnlyPaths`, `ReadWritePaths`, and `InaccessiblePaths` to allow/disallow other paths not covered by the default sandbox

Due to a limit in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise related to socket activation, `PrivateNetwork=true` cannot be used at this time.

### Tuning the `systemd` unit

While the `systemd` unit is verified to work with InfluxDB 3 Enterprise and [official plugins](/influxdb3/enterprise/plugins/library/official/), you may want to harden the unit further or loosen its restrictions in certain situations.

To edit the unit file, enter the following command:

```bash
systemctl edit influxdb3-enterprise
```

Avoid modifying the `influxdb3-enterprise.service` file directly. Use `systemctl edit` to add overrides.

#### Example: loosen for ProtectProc=default

If a custom plugin needs to read other processes’ information from `/proc`:

1. Run `sudo systemctl edit influxdb3-enterprise`
    
2. Edit the file to contain:
    
    ```
    ### Editing /etc/systemd/system/influxdb3-enterprise.service.d/override.conf
    ### Anything between here and the comment below will become the new contents of the file
    
    [Service]
    # the 'foo' plugin needs to see other user's processes
    ProtectProc=default
    
    ### Lines below this comment will be discarded
    ...
    ```
    
3. Verify the changes (the shipped unit is listed first followed by overrides):
    
    ```
    $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl cat --no-pager influxdb3-enterprise
    [Unit]
    Description=InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
    After=network-online.target
    
    [Service]
    ...
    ProtectProc=invisible
    ...
    
    # /etc/systemd/system/influxdb3-enterprise.service.d/override.conf
    [Service]
    # the 'foo' plugin needs to see other users' processes
    ProtectProc=default
    $
    ```
    
4. Restart the unit with `sudo systemctl restart influxdb3-enterprise`
    

#### Example: restrict networking

`systemd` supports network filtering via BPF. When adding directives, the rule evaluation order is:

1. Access is granted if matches entry in IPAddressAllow
2. Otherwise access is denied if matches entry in IPAddressDeny
3. Otherwise access is granted

For egress, the IP matches against sender and for ingress, it matches against the receiver. This filtering only matches on IP addresses, not ports; if you need more flexibility, use host firewall tools/cloud security groups instead.

As an example, to limit communications to only localhost, use `systemctl edit influxdb3-enterprise` to add:

```
### Editing /etc/systemd/system/influxdb3-enterprise.service.d/override.conf
### Anything between here and the comment below will become the new contents of the file

IPAddressDeny=any
IPAddressAllow=localhost

### Lines below this comment will be discarded
...
```

Alternatively, to restrict networking to only public IP ranges, use this instead:

```
### Editing /etc/systemd/system/influxdb3-enterprise.service.d/override.conf
### Anything between here and the comment below will become the new contents of the file

IPAddressDeny=0.0.0.0/32      # 0.0.0.0 treated as 127.0.0.1
IPAddressDeny=127.0.0.0/8     # IPv4 loopback
IPAddressDeny=10.0.0.0/8      # IPv4 internal (RFC1918)
IPAddressDeny=172.16.0.0/12   # IPv4 internal (RFC1918)
IPAddressDeny=192.168.0.0/16  # IPv4 internal (RFC1918)
IPAddressDeny=169.254.0.0/16  # IPv4 link-local (RFC3927)
IPAddressDeny=224.0.0.0/4     # IPv4 multicast
IPAddressDeny=::1/128         # IPv6 loopback
IPAddressDeny=fe80::/64       # IPv6 link-local
IPAddressDeny=fc00::/7        # IPv6 unique local addr
IPAddressDeny=ff00::/8        # IPv6 multicast

### Lines below this comment will be discarded
...
```

#### Example: add memory, CPU and I/O control for process node

If InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is configured to start as a standalone processing engine node (for example, started with `--mode="process"`), then it could utilize different security directives than the database itself. For example, consider the following `systemd` override for limiting a processing engine-only node:

```
### Editing /etc/systemd/system/influxdb3-enterprise.service.d/override.conf
### Anything between here and the comment below will become the new contents of the file

[Service]
# Memory - limit to 20% of the memory, killing it and restarting the service
# if it reaches 30%
MemoryHigh=20%
MemoryMax=30%
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
StartLimitIntervalSec=600
StartLimitBurst=5
OOMPolicy=continue

# CPU - Limit to maximum of 2 CPUs with deprioritized nice value
Nice=10
CPUQuota=200%
CPUSchedulingPolicy=batch
LimitNPROC=256
TasksMax=256

# I/O - Limit I/O to not starve main database
IOWeight=50

### Lines below this comment will be discarded
...
```

### systemd references

See the `systemd` documentation for additional information:

-   [systemd](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/)
-   [systemd.service](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.service.html)
-   [systemd.exec](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.exec.html)
-   [systemd.resource-control](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.resource-control.html)

#### Related