# OpenSearch Dashboards warns opensearch\_security.cookie.secure as unknown configuration key

**URL:** <https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125>\
**Category:** OpenSearch Dashboards\
**Tags:** troubleshoot, configure\
**Created:** [April 15, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125 "2025-04-15T13:47:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paksydavid](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/paksydavid/32/9030_2.png) [@paksydavid](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/paksydavid)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125/1 "2025-04-15T13:47:19Z")

</div>

**Versions** (relevant - OpenSearch/Dashboard/Server OS/Browser):

OpenSearch and Dashboard version: 2.18.0 on Linux, installed via tarball.

**Describe the issue** :

Hi,

This is my first topic here, so apologies for my ignorance. 🙂

I have a fully working OpenSearch 2.18.0 cluster with TLS configured enabled using my own PKI.  
I also configured Dashboard (2.18.0) according to [Configure TLS - OpenSearch Documentation](https://opensearch.org/docs/2.18/install-and-configure/install-dashboards/tls/) and it is working together fine but I experienced one strange issue.

When I add `opensearch_security.cookie.secure: true` - as [the same page linked above](https://opensearch.org/docs/2.18/install-and-configure/install-dashboards/tls/) suggests - to the `opensearch_dashboards.yml` and restart Dashboard, it will fail at startup (the process will exit) and I can see this error in the dashboard log:

```auto
FATAL Error: Unknown configuration key(s): "opensearch_security.cookie.secure". Check for spelling errors and ensure that expected plugins are installed.

```

If I remove `opensearch_security.cookie.secure: true` from `opensearch_dashboards.yml` and restart Dashboard, everything works fine with TLS enabled without any problem.

I tried multiple times - this behavior is always reproducible.

Any ideas what am I missing / doing wrong?

**Configuration** :

Note: I removed some details using asterisks.

`opensearch_dashboards.yml`

```auto
server.port: 5601
opensearch.requestHeadersWhitelist: [authorization, securitytenant]
path.data: /var/lib/opensearch/dashboard

server.ssl.enabled: true
server.ssl.certificate: ***.pem
server.ssl.key: ***.pem
opensearch.ssl.verificationMode: full
opensearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: [***_cacerts.pem]
opensearch.username: "kibanaserver"
opensearch.password: "kibanaserver"
opensearch_security.cookie.secure: true

server.host: "my-host"
opensearch.hosts: [https://my-host:9200]

```

`opensearch.yml`

```yml
network.host: [_site_, _local_]
http.port: 9200
transport.port: 9300
node.roles: [master]
discovery.seed_providers: file
plugins:
  security:
    ssl:
      transport:
        pemcert_filepath: ***_cert.pem
        pemkey_filepath: ***_key.pem
        pemtrustedcas_filepath: ***_cacerts.pem
        enforce_hostname_verification: false
      http:
        enabled: true
        pemcert_filepath: ***_chain.pem
        pemkey_filepath: ***_key.pem
        pemtrustedcas_filepath: ***_cacerts.pem
    allow_unsafe_democertificates: false
    allow_default_init_securityindex: true
    authcz:
      admin_dn:
        - "CN=my-host"
    nodes_dn:
      - "CN=my-host,ST=*,C=*"
    audit.type: internal_opensearch
    enable_snapshot_restore_privilege: true
    check_snapshot_restore_write_privileges: true
    restapi:
      roles_enabled: ["all_access", "security_rest_api_access"]
    system_indices:
      enabled: true
      indices:
        [
          ".opendistro-alerting-config",
          ".opendistro-alerting-alert*",
          ".opendistro-anomaly-results*",
          ".opendistro-anomaly-detector*",
          ".opendistro-anomaly-checkpoints",
          ".opendistro-anomaly-detection-state",
          ".opendistro-reports-*",
          ".opendistro-notifications-*",
          ".opendistro-notebooks",
          ".opendistro-asynchronous-search-response*",
        ]
cluster.initial_master_nodes: [my-host]
path.logs: /var/log/opensearch/master
path.data: /var/lib/opensearch/master

```

**Relevant Logs or Screenshots** :

```auto
FATAL Error: Unknown configuration key(s): "opensearch_security.cookie.secure". Check for spelling errors and ensure that expected plugins are installed.

...

{"type":"log","@timestamp":"2025-04-17T08:54:02Z","tags":["fatal","root"],"pid":2119422,"message":"InvalidConfigurationError: Unknown configuration key(s): \"opensearch_security.cookie.secure\". Check for spelling errors and ensure that expected plugins are installed.\n at ensureValidConfiguration (/opt/***/Dashboard/src/core/server/legacy/config/ensure_valid_configuration.js:50:11)\n at Server.setup (/opt/***/Dashboard/src/core/server/server.js:163:5)\n at Root.setup (/opt/***/Dashboard/src/core/server/root/index.js:60:14)\n at bootstrap (/opt/***/Dashboard/src/core/server/bootstrap.js:113:5)\n at Command.<anonymous> (/opt/***/Dashboard/src/cli/serve/serve.js:192:5) {\n code: 'InvalidConfig',\n processExitCode: 64,\n cause: undefined\n}"}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paksydavid](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/paksydavid/32/9030_2.png) [@paksydavid](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/paksydavid)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 9:02am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125/2 "2025-04-17T09:02:05Z")

</div>

BTW: I verified the REST API TLS connection with:

```auto
curl --cacert ***_cacerts.pem https://my-host:9200/_nodes -H "Accept: application/json" -u admin:admin | jq

{
  "_nodes": {
    "total": 3,
    "successful": 3,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "cluster_name": "opensearch",
  "nodes": {
    "***SfdPWCmaR_7w": {

...

}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pablo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/pablo/32/10363_2.png) [@pablo](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/pablo)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2025, 9:58am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125/3 "2025-04-18T09:58:25Z")

</div>

@paksydavid Did you install security plugin for OpenSearch Dashboards?  
`opensearch_security.cookie.secure` is part of the security plugin.

All the other options in your opensearch\_dashboards.yml don’t require security plugin.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paksydavid](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/paksydavid/32/9030_2.png) [@paksydavid](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/paksydavid)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:54am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125/4 "2025-04-28T08:54:01Z")

</div>

Many thanks @pablo, I guess I missed that. 🤔 I’ll have a look.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paksydavid](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/paksydavid/32/9030_2.png) [@paksydavid](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/paksydavid)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/opensearch-dashboards-warns-opensearch-security-cookie-secure-as-unknown-configuration-key/24125/5 "2025-04-29T14:29:41Z")

</div>

Thanks for the hint @pablo I checked and I indeed did not installed the Dashboards security plugin.

We have a custom build and I did not had Dashboards security plugin installed.