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MongoDB Security Basics

Welcome to the MongoDB Security Basics guide. This comprehensive tutorial covers essential security concepts and implementations for both MongoDB Atlas and On-premises deployments.

Overview​

This guide is structured to help you understand and implement MongoDB security features effectively. Each section provides side-by-side comparisons of implementing security features in both MongoDB Atlas and On-premises environments.

In the navigation bar and in some pages, you will notice some icons. Here is their meaning:

IconMeaningDescription
📘Lecture materialIf you are following along in an instructor-led session, they probably have covered this already.
👐Hands-on contentGet ready to do some hands-on work. You should follow these steps.
📚DocumentationReference documentation for hands-on portions of the lab.
🦹Advanced contentThis content isn't covered during the lab, but if you're interested in learning more, you can check it out.

Topics Covered​

1. Intro and Network Security​

Explore Atlas-specific security features:

  • Network access controls
  • Private endpoints

Explore self-hosted considerations for network security

2. Authentication​

Learn about different authentication mechanisms and how to:

  • Set up user authentication
  • Implement X.509 certificate authentication
  • Manage credentials securely

3. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)​

Understand how to:

  • Create and manage roles
  • Assign privileges to roles
  • Implement role inheritance
  • Follow security best practices for access control

4. Queryable Encryption​

Learn how to handle your sensitive information with our most advanced encryption technique:

  • Setup encrypiton keys
  • Create an encrypted client
  • Write and read encrypted field data

5. Security Considerations and Summary​

Learn about additional Atlas and self-hosted security configurations:

  • System hardening
  • Encryption options
  • Database auditing
  • Backup security
  • Audit logging
  • Backup strategies

Getting Started​

Prerequisites​

Before implementing security measures, ensure you have:

  1. MongoDB Atlas Users

    • An Atlas account
    • Access to a notebook environment to install Atlas CLI on.

    Recommended one of:

  2. On-Premises Users

    • MongoDB installed
    • Administrative access
    • Basic understanding of Linux/Unix systems

Using This Guide​

Each section provides:

  • Side-by-side comparisons of Atlas and On-premises implementations
  • Practical code examples
  • Best practices
  • Security checklists
  • Hands-on exercises by using .ipynb notebooks.

Tab Navigation​

Throughout this guide, you'll find content organized in tabs:

  • Atlas: MongoDB Atlas specific instructions
  • On-Premises: Self-hosted deployment instructions

This allows you to focus on the content relevant to your deployment type while understanding the differences between approaches.

Security Best Practices​

Regardless of your deployment type, always:

  1. Network Security
  • Restrict network access
  • Use TLS/SSL encryption
  • Implement proper firewall rules

  1. Enable Authentication

    • Never run MongoDB without authentication
    • Use strong passwords
    • Implement appropriate authentication mechanisms

  2. Use Access Controls

    • Follow the principle of least privilege
    • Regularly audit user access
    • Implement role-based access control

  3. Use Queryable Encryption

    • Setup queryable encryption
    • Create database encrypted client and collections
    • Read and write encrypted documents.

Next Steps​

  1. Start with Initial Setup to get started on completing the challenge sections.
  2. Progress to Network Setup for authorising access and Authentication for database user management and Authorization.
  3. Explore Queryable Encryption for document based security.
  4. Finally, recap everything in Security Considerations and Summary.

Additional Resources​

Remember to regularly review and update your security configurations to maintain the safety of your MongoDB deployments.