Security

Qdrant supports various security features to help you secure your instance. Most of these must to be explicitly configured to make your instance production ready. Please read the following section carefully.

Secure Your Instance

By default, all self-deployed Qdrant instances are not secure. They are open to all network interfaces and do not have any kind of authentication configured. They may be open to everybody on the internet without any restrictions. You must therefore take security measures to make your instance production-ready. Please read through this section carefully for instructions on how to secure your instance.

Instances deployed via Qdrant Cloud are always secure by default. Refer to Authentication and Client IP Restrictions.

To properly secure your own instance, we strongly recommend taking the following steps:

1. Authentication: set up an API key to prevent unauthorized access.
   The most important step to prevent unauthenticated actors from accessing your data.
2. Network Bind: bind to a specific network interface or IP address.
   When developing locally, bind to 127.0.0.1 to prevent all external access. When deploying to production, bind to a private network interface or IP.
3. TLS: enable encrypted traffic everywhere using TLS.

Authentication

Available as of v1.2.0

Qdrant supports a simple form of client authentication using a static API key. This can be used to secure your instance.

To enable API key based authentication in your own Qdrant instance you must specify a key in the configuration:

service:
  # Set an api-key.
  # If set, all requests must include a header with the api-key.
  # example header: `api-key: <API-KEY>`
  #
  # If you enable this you should also enable TLS.
  # (Either above or via an external service like nginx.)
  # Sending an api-key over an unencrypted channel is insecure.
  api_key: your_secret_api_key_here

Or alternatively, you can use the environment variable:

docker run -p 6333:6333 \
    -e QDRANT__SERVICE__API_KEY=your_secret_api_key_here \
    qdrant/qdrant

For using API key based authentication in Qdrant Cloud see the cloud Authentication section.

The API key then needs to be present in all REST or gRPC requests to your instance. All official Qdrant clients for Python, Go, Rust, .NET and Java support the API key parameter.

curl \
  -X GET https://localhost:6333 \
  --header 'api-key: your_secret_api_key_here'

from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(
    url="https://localhost:6333",
    api_key="your_secret_api_key_here",
)

import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({
  url: "http://localhost",
  port: 6333,
  apiKey: "your_secret_api_key_here",
});

use qdrant_client::Qdrant;

let client = Qdrant::from_url("https://xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io:6334")
    .api_key("<paste-your-api-key-here>")
    .build()?;

import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(
        QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder(
                "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
                6334,
                true)
            .withApiKey("<paste-your-api-key-here>")
            .build());

using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient(
  host: "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
  https: true,
  apiKey: "<paste-your-api-key-here>"
);

import "github.com/qdrant/go-client/qdrant"

client, err := qdrant.NewClient(&qdrant.Config{
	Host:   "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
	Port:   6334,
	APIKey: "<paste-your-api-key-here>",
	UseTLS: true,
})

Read-Only API Key

Available as of v1.7.0

In addition to the regular API key, Qdrant also supports a read-only API key. This key can be used to access read-only operations on the instance.

service:
  read_only_api_key: your_secret_read_only_api_key_here

Or with the environment variable:

export QDRANT__SERVICE__READ_ONLY_API_KEY=your_secret_read_only_api_key_here

Both API keys can be used simultaneously.

Granular Access Control with JWT

Available as of v1.9.0

For more complex cases, Qdrant supports granular access control with JSON Web Tokens (JWT). This allows you to create tokens which restrict access to data stored in your cluster, and build Role-based access control (RBAC) on top of that. In this way, you can define permissions for users and restrict access to sensitive endpoints.

To enable JWT-based authentication in your own Qdrant instance you need to specify the api-key and enable the jwt_rbac feature in the configuration:

service:
  api_key: you_secret_api_key_here
  jwt_rbac: true

Or with the environment variables:

export QDRANT__SERVICE__API_KEY=your_secret_api_key_here
export QDRANT__SERVICE__JWT_RBAC=true

The api_key you set in the configuration will be used to encode and decode the JWTs, so –needless to say– keep it secure. If your api_key changes, all existing tokens will be invalid.

To use JWT-based authentication, you need to provide it as a bearer token in the Authorization header, or as an key in the Api-Key header of your requests.

Authorization: Bearer <JWT>

// or

Api-Key: <JWT>

from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

qdrant_client = QdrantClient(
    "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
    api_key="<JWT>",
)

import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({
  host: "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
  apiKey: "<JWT>",
});

use qdrant_client::Qdrant;

let client = Qdrant::from_url("https://xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io:6334")
    .api_key("<JWT>")
    .build()?;

import io.qdrant.client.QdrantClient;
import io.qdrant.client.QdrantGrpcClient;

QdrantClient client =
    new QdrantClient(
        QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder(
                "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
                6334,
                true)
            .withApiKey("<JWT>")
            .build());

using Qdrant.Client;

var client = new QdrantClient(
  host: "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
  https: true,
  apiKey: "<JWT>"
);

import "github.com/qdrant/go-client/qdrant"

client, err := qdrant.NewClient(&qdrant.Config{
	Host:   "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io",
	Port:   6334,
	APIKey: "<JWT>",
	UseTLS: true,
})

Generating JSON Web Tokens

Due to the nature of JWT, anyone who knows the api_key can generate tokens by using any of the existing libraries and tools, it is not necessary for them to have access to the Qdrant instance to generate them.

For convenience, we have added a JWT generation tool the Qdrant Web UI under the 🔑 tab, if you’re using the default url, it will be at http://localhost:6333/dashboard#/jwt.

• JWT Header - Qdrant uses the HS256 algorithm to decode the tokens.

  {
    "alg": "HS256",
    "typ": "JWT"
  }
  

• JWT Payload - You can include any combination of the parameters available in the payload. Keep reading for more info on each one.

  {
    "exp": 1640995200, // Expiration time
    "value_exists": ..., // Validate this token by looking for a point with a payload value
    "access": "r", // Define the access level.
  }
  

Signing the token - To confirm that the generated token is valid, it needs to be signed with the api_key you have set in the configuration. That would mean, that someone who knows the api_key gives the authorization for the new token to be used in the Qdrant instance. Qdrant can validate the signature, because it knows the api_key and can decode the token.

The process of token generation can be done on the client side offline, and doesn’t require any communication with the Qdrant instance.

Here is an example of libraries that can be used to generate JWT tokens:

• Python: PyJWT
• JavaScript: jsonwebtoken
• Rust: jsonwebtoken
• CLI: jwt-cli

Here is an example using jwt-cli:

jwt encode --payload '{
  "access": "r",
  "exp": 1766055305
}' --secret 'your-api-key'

JWT Configuration

These are the available options, or claims in the JWT lingo. You can use them in the JWT payload to define its functionality.

• exp - The expiration time of the token. This is a Unix timestamp in seconds. The token will be invalid after this time. The check for this claim includes a 30-second leeway to account for clock skew.

  {
    "exp": 1640995200, // Expiration time
  }
  

• value_exists - This is a claim that can be used to validate the token against the data stored in a collection. Structure of this claim is as follows:

  {
    "value_exists": {
      "collection": "my_validation_collection",
      "matches": [
        { "key": "my_key", "value": "value_that_must_exist" }
      ],
    },
  }
  

  If this claim is present, Qdrant will check if there is a point in the collection with the specified key-values. If it does, the token is valid.

  This claim is especially useful if you want to have an ability to revoke tokens without changing the api_key. Consider a case where you have a collection of users, and you want to revoke access to a specific user.

  {
    "value_exists": {
      "collection": "users",
      "matches": [
        { "key": "user_id", "value": "andrey" },
        { "key": "role", "value": "manager" }
      ],
    },
  }
  

  You can create a token with this claim, and when you want to revoke access, you can change the role of the user to something else, and the token will be invalid.

• access - This claim defines the access level of the token. If this claim is present, Qdrant will check if the token has the required access level to perform the operation. If this claim is not present, manage access is assumed.

  It can provide global access with r for read-only, or m for manage. For example:

  {
    "access": "r"
  }
  

  It can also be specific to one or more collections. The access level for each collection is r for read-only, or rw for read-write, like this:

  {
    "access": [
      {
        "collection": "my_collection",
        "access": "rw"
      }
    ]
  }
  

Table of Access

Check out this table to see which actions are allowed or denied based on the access level.

This is also applicable to using api keys instead of tokens. In that case, api_key maps to manage, while read_only_api_key maps to read-only.

Audit Logging

Available as of v1.17.0

Audit logging records all API operations that require authentication or authorization, and writes them to a log file in JSON format.

Audit logging is not enabled by default. To enable it, use the following configuration options:

audit:
  enabled: false
  dir: ./storage/audit
  rotation: daily
  max_log_files: 7

By default, audit logs are rotated daily, and the seven most recent log files are kept. To configure hourly rotation, set rotation to hourly. When the number of log files exceeds max_log_files, the oldest log file is deleted.

Network Bind

By default, a custom Qdrant deployment binds to all network interfaces. Your instance may be open to everybody on the internet. On a local development machine you likely have a firewall in place to prevent public access, but that may not be the case on a public VPS or dedicated server.

It is highly recommended to bind to a specific interface or IP address to prevent unwanted access:

• when developing locally, bind to 127.0.0.1 so no external access is possible
• or, when deploying to production, bind to a private network interface or IP

When using Docker, you may use the publish flag to bind to a specific interface. For example:

docker run -p 127.0.0.1:6333:6333 qdrant/qdrant

If using another type of deployment you may configure the bind address in Qdrant itself. Either set service.host: 127.0.0.1 in the configuration, or use an environment variable like this:

QDRANT__SERVICE__HOST=127.0.0.1 ./qdrant

Managed Qdrant Cloud deployments are always secure by default. They are publicly accessible and bound to the endpoint that is assigned to the cluster. You may configure authentication with API keys, and restrict access to specific IP addresses through Client IP Restrictions. Hybrid Cloud and Private Cloud deployments have their own kind of configuration.

TLS

Available as of v1.2.0

TLS for encrypted connections can be enabled on your Qdrant instance to secure connections.

First make sure you have a certificate and private key for TLS, usually in .pem format. On your local machine you may use mkcert to generate a self signed certificate.

To enable TLS, set the following properties in the Qdrant configuration with the correct paths and restart:

service:
  # Enable HTTPS for the REST and gRPC API
  enable_tls: true

# TLS configuration.
# Required if either service.enable_tls or cluster.p2p.enable_tls is true.
tls:
  # Server certificate chain file
  cert: ./tls/cert.pem

  # Server private key file
  key: ./tls/key.pem

For internal communication when running cluster mode, TLS can be enabled with:

cluster:
  # Configuration of the inter-cluster communication
  p2p:
    # Use TLS for communication between peers
    enable_tls: true

With TLS enabled, you must start using HTTPS connections. For example:

curl -X GET https://localhost:6333

from qdrant_client import QdrantClient

client = QdrantClient(
    url="https://localhost:6333",
)

import { QdrantClient } from "@qdrant/js-client-rest";

const client = new QdrantClient({ url: "https://localhost", port: 6333 });

use qdrant_client::Qdrant;

let client = Qdrant::from_url("http://localhost:6334").build()?;

Certificate rotation is enabled with a default refresh time of one hour. This reloads certificate files every hour while Qdrant is running. This way changed certificates are picked up when they get updated externally. The refresh time can be tuned by changing the tls.cert_ttl setting. You can leave this on, even if you don’t plan to update your certificates. Currently this is only supported for the REST API.

Optionally, you can enable client certificate validation on the server against a local certificate authority. Set the following properties and restart:

service:
  # Check user HTTPS client certificate against CA file specified in tls config
  verify_https_client_certificate: false

# TLS configuration.
# Required if either service.enable_tls or cluster.p2p.enable_tls is true.
tls:
  # Certificate authority certificate file.
  # This certificate will be used to validate the certificates
  # presented by other nodes during inter-cluster communication.
  #
  # If verify_https_client_certificate is true, it will verify
  # HTTPS client certificate
  #
  # Required if cluster.p2p.enable_tls is true.
  ca_cert: ./tls/cacert.pem

Hardening

We recommend reducing the amount of permissions granted to Qdrant containers so that you can reduce the risk of exploitation. Here are some ways to reduce the permissions of a Qdrant container:

• Run Qdrant as a non-root user. This can help mitigate the risk of future container breakout vulnerabilities. Qdrant does not need the privileges of the root user for any purpose.

  • You can use the image qdrant/qdrant:<version>-unprivileged instead of the default Qdrant image.
  • You can use the flag --user=1000:2000 when running docker run.
  • You can set user: 1000 when using Docker Compose.
  • You can set runAsUser: 1000 when running in Kubernetes (our Helm chart does this by default).

• Run Qdrant with a read-only root filesystem. This can help mitigate vulnerabilities that require the ability to modify system files, which is a permission Qdrant does not need. As long as the container uses mounted volumes for storage (/qdrant/storage and /qdrant/snapshots by default), Qdrant can continue to operate while being prevented from writing data outside of those volumes.

  • You can use the flag --read-only when running docker run.
  • You can set read_only: true when using Docker Compose.
  • You can set readOnlyRootFilesystem: true when running in Kubernetes (our Helm chart does this by default).

• Block Qdrant’s external network access. This can help mitigate server side request forgery attacks, like via the snapshot recovery API. Single-node Qdrant clusters do not require any outbound network access. Multi-node Qdrant clusters only need the ability to connect to other Qdrant nodes via TCP ports 6333, 6334, and 6335.

  • You can use docker network create --internal <name> and use that network when running docker run --network <name>.
  • You can create an internal network when using Docker Compose.
  • You can create a NetworkPolicy when using Kubernetes. Note that multi-node Qdrant clusters will also need access to cluster DNS in Kubernetes.

There are other techniques for reducing the permissions such as dropping Linux capabilities depending on your deployment method, but the methods mentioned above are the most important.