MongoDB - admin user not authorized - mongodb

Question

I am trying to add authorization to my MongoDB.
I am doing all this on Linux with MongoDB 2.6.1.
My mongod.conf file is in the old compatibility format
(this is how it came with the installation).
1) I created admin user as described here in (3)
http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/tutorial/add-user-administrator/
2) I then edited mongod.conf by uncommenting this line
auth = true
3) Finally I rebooted the mongod service and I tried to login with:
/usr/bin/mongo localhost:27017/admin -u sa -p pwd
4) I can connect but it says this upon connect.
MongoDB shell version: 2.6.1
connecting to: localhost:27017/admin
Welcome to the MongoDB shell!
The current date/time is: Thu May 29 2014 17:47:16 GMT-0400 (EDT)
Error while trying to show server startup warnings: not authorized on admin to execute command { getLog: "startupWarnings" }
5) Now it seems this sa user I created has no permissions at all.
root#test02:~# mc
MongoDB shell version: 2.6.1
connecting to: localhost:27017/admin
Welcome to the MongoDB shell!
The current date/time is: Thu May 29 2014 17:57:03 GMT-0400 (EDT)
Error while trying to show server startup warnings: not authorized on admin to execute command { getLog: "startupWarnings" }
[admin] 2014-05-29 17:57:03.011 >>> use admin
switched to db admin
[admin] 2014-05-29 17:57:07.889 >>> show collections
2014-05-29T17:57:10.377-0400 error: {
"$err" : "not authorized for query on admin.system.namespaces",
"code" : 13
} at src/mongo/shell/query.js:131
[admin] 2014-05-29 17:57:10.378 >>> use test
switched to db test
[test] 2014-05-29 17:57:13.466 >>> show collections
2014-05-29T17:57:15.930-0400 error: {
"$err" : "not authorized for query on test.system.namespaces",
"code" : 13
} at src/mongo/shell/query.js:131
[test] 2014-05-29 17:57:15.931 >>>
What is the problem? I repeated this whole procedure 3 times and
I think I did it all as specified in the MongoDB docs. But it doesn't work.
I was expecting this sa user to be authorized to do anything so that
he can then create other users and give them more specific permissions.

Answer 1

I was also scratching my head around the same issue, and everything worked after I set the role to be root when adding the first admin user.
use admin
db.createUser(
{
user: 'admin',
pwd: 'password',
roles: [ { role: 'root', db: 'admin' } ]
}
);
exit;
If you have already created the admin user, you can change the role like this:
use admin;
db.grantRolesToUser('admin', [{ role: 'root', db: 'admin' }])
For a complete authentication setting reference, see the steps I've compiled after hours of research over the internet.

Answer 2

It's a bit confusing - I believe you will need to grant yourself readWrite to query a database. A user with dbadmin or useradmin can admin the database (including granting yourself additional rights) but cannot perform queries or write data.
so grant yourself readWrite and you should be fine -
http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/built-in-roles/#readWrite

Answer 3

Perhaps a quick example of how to change a current user will be helpful to somebody. This is what I was actually looking for.
Following advice of #JohnPetrone I added readWrite role to my admin user with grantRolesToUser
> use admin
> db.grantRolesToUser("admin",["readWrite"])
> show collections
system.users
system.version

Answer 4

You can try: Using the --authenticationDatabase flag helps.
mongo --port 27017 -u "admin" -p "password" --authenticationDatabase "admin"

Answer 5

I know this answer is coming really late on in this thread but I hope you check it out.
The reason you get that error is based on the specific role that you granted to the user, which you have gathered by now, and yes giving that user the role root will solve your problem but you must first understand what these roles do exactly before granting them to users.
In tutorial you granted the user the userAdminAnyDatabase role which basically give the user the ability to manage users of all your databases.
What you were trying to do with your user was outside its role definition.
The root role has this role included in it definition as well as the readWriteAnyDatabase, dbAdminAnyDatabase and other roles making it a superuser (basically because you can do anything with it).
You can check out the role definitions to see which roles you will need to give you users to complete certain tasks.
https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/built-in-roles/
Its not advisable to make all your users super ones :)

Answer 6

It's a simple question.
It's important that you must switch the target db NOT admin.
use yourDB
check your db authentication by
show users
If you get a {} empty object that is the question. You just need to type
db.createUser(
{
user: "yourUser",
pwd: "password",
roles: [ "readWrite", "dbAdmin" ]
} )
or
db.grantRolesToUser('yourUser',[{ role: "dbAdmin", db: "yourDB" }])

Answer 7

If you're using Atlas, note that you can't create users through the mongo shell.
I was banging my head against the wall for a while till I came across this:
https://www.mongodb.com/community/forums/t/cant-create-a-root-user-from-mongo-shell/101369

Answer 8

I had this problem because of the hostname in my MongoDB Compass was pointing to admin instead for my project. Fixed by adding the /projectname after the hostname :)
Try this:
Choose your project in the MongoDB atlas website
Connect/Connect with MongoDB Compass
Download Compass/Choose your OS
I used Compass 1.12 or later
Copy the connection string under the Compass 1.12 or later.
Open MongoDB Compass/Connect(top left)/Connect To
Connection String detected/Yes/
Append your project name after the hostname: cluster9-foodie.mongodb.net/projectname
Connect & Tested the API with POSTMAN.
Succeed.
Use the same connection string in your code too:
Before:
mongodb+srv://projectname:password#cluster9-foodie.mongodb.net/admin
After:
mongodb+srv://projectname:password#cluster9-foodie.mongodb.net/projectname
Good luck.

Answer 9

Use Admin :
use admin
Create a super user :
db.createUser(
{
user: "master",
pwd: "test#123",
roles: [
{
role: "readWriteAnyDatabase",
db: "admin"
},
{
"role" : "dbAdminAnyDatabase",
"db" : "admin"
},
{
"role" : "clusterAdmin",
"db" : "admin"
},
"userAdminAnyDatabase"
]
}
)

Answer 10

I came across this thread with a similar issue, but my problem was that I used the collection name instead of the database name.

Answer 11

I had a similar problem here on a Windows environment: I have installed Bitnami DreamFactory and it also installs another MongoDb that is started on system boot. I was running my MongoDbService (that was started without any error) but I noticed after losing a lot of time that I was in fact connecting on Bitnami's MongoDb Service. Please, take a look if there is not another instance of mongoDB running on your server.
Good Luck!

Answer 12

In addition, notice that if your mongo shell client fails to connect correctly to the mongod instance, you can receive such "Permission Denied" errors.
Make sure that your client opens a connection by checking the connection port, but also that the port you are using in mongod is not in use. You can set a different port by using the --port <port> parameter in both the shell and the process.

Answer 13

use mydb
db.createUser( { user: "test", pwd: "secret", roles: [ "readWrite", "dbAdmin"],passwordDigestor:"server" } )

Answer 14

Agreed that you've to get authenticated to admin db and needs at least a role with correct privileges which would avoid 'local host exception' from DB(this is for mongoDB's hosted on-premises), though you've everything in place & still getting not authorized exceptions on almost every command, while accessing mongoDB which got created using Mongo Atlas, then here is the place where you might know the reason, why :
https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/219003/not-authorized-on-admin-to-execute-command-mongodb-atlas-m0-free-tier-cluster?newreg=471a9a26108243d78d4ca74a87e7a115
and also check this if you've hosted mongoDB on mongo Atlas:
https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/unsupported-commands/

Answer 15

I followed these steps on Centos 7 for MongoDB 4.2. (Remote user)
Update mongod.conf file
vi /etc/mongod.conf
net:
port: 27017
bindIp: 0.0.0.0
security:
authorization: enabled
Start MongoDB service demon
systemctl start mongod
Open MongoDB shell
mongo
Execute this command on the shell
use admin
db.createUser(
{
user: 'admin',
pwd: 'YouPassforUser',
roles: [ { role: 'root', db: 'admin' } ]
}
);
Remote root user has been created. Now you can test this database connection by using any MongoDB GUI tool from your dev machine. Like Robo 3T

Answer 16

For MongoDB shell version v4.2.8 I've tried different ways to back-up my database with auth, my winner solution is
mongodump -h <your_hostname> -d <your_db_name> -u <your_db_username> -p <your_db_password> --authenticationDatabase admin -o /path/to/where/i/want

Answer 17

This may be because you havent set noAuth=true in mongodb.conf
# Turn on/off security. Off is currently the default
noauth = true
#auth = true
After setting this restart the service using
service mongod restart