This page is about the security of data sent to Datadog. If you're looking for cloud and application security products and features, see the Security section.
You can send data to the Datadog service by using a locally installed Agent or through our HTTP API. While use of Datadog does not strictly require use of the Datadog Agent, the vast majority of customers leverage the Agent. This article describes the main security capabilities and features available to ensure your environment is secure.
Agent distribution
The official repositories and binary packages of the Agent are signed. Verify the distribution channel by checking the signature against one of the following public keys:
Apple certificate fingerprint FDD2ADF623EA75E62C6DC6DBFBA7520CA549AB7314E660D78B0E3DCCF15B2FBA
On Debian and Ubuntu, the datadog-agent package has a soft dependency on the datadog-signing-keys package, which makes the above keys trusted by APT. Keeping the package updated ensures the latest signing keys are present on your system.
Windows MSI
To verify the signature of a Datadog Agent installer file on Windows, pipe the output of Get-AuthenticodeSignature through FormatList (fl) and make sure:
the status is valid
the certificate is signed by Datadog, Inc
the issuer is DigiCert
For example, to verify an .msi file named ddagent-cli-7.49.1.msi:
If the output of the command is A certificate chain could not be built to a trusted root authority, the machine may need a DigiCert root CA update.
Information security
The Datadog Agent submits data to Datadog over a TLS-encrypted TCP connection by default. As of version 6, the Agent can be configured to enforce a minimum TLS version when connecting to Datadog. If you require the use of strong cryptography, for example, to meet PCI requirements, you should use Agent v6/7 and set the min_tls_version: 'tlsv1.2' setting, or force_tls_12: true for Agent < 6.39.0/7.39.0, in the Agent’s configuration file.
Networking and proxying
Datadog is a SaaS product: you need to establish an outbound connection from your network to the public internet in order to submit monitoring data. Traffic is always initiated by the Agent to Datadog from TLS-encrypted TCP connection by default. No sessions are ever initiated from Datadog back to the Agent. See the Agent’s Network page for more information on configuring firewalls to allow list the required Datadog domains and ports. Additionally, if you want to monitor hosts with no direct connectivity to the public internet, or with restricted outbound traffic, consider submitting monitoring data from a proxy.
Agent logs obfuscation
The Datadog Agent generates local logs in order to support Agent troubleshooting as required. As a safety precaution, these local logs are filtered for some specific keywords and patterns that could indicate a potential credential (for example, API key, password, and token keywords), which are then obfuscated before being written to disk.
Local HTTPS server
Agent v6/7 exposes a local HTTPS API to ease communication between a running Agent and Agent tools (for example, the datadog-agent commands). The API server can only be accessed from the local network interface (localhost/127.0.0.1), and authentication is enforced through a token that’s only readable by the user that the Agent runs as. Communication to the local HTTPS API is encrypted in transport to protect from eavesdropping on localhost.
Agent GUI
Agent v6/7 comes bundled with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) by default, which launches in your default web browser. The GUI is launched only if the user launching it has the correct user permissions, including the ability to open the Agent’s configuration file. The GUI can only be accessed from the local network interface (localhost/127.0.0.1). Finally, the user’s cookies must be enabled, as the GUI generates and saves a token used for authenticating all communications with the GUI server as well as protecting against Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks. The GUI can also be disabled altogether if needed.
Agent security scans
Datadog’s Vulnerability Management program includes regular assessments of supporting infrastructure and application components, including active scans of core supporting services. Datadog Security teams perform regular scans to identify configuration and software vulnerabilities, and track remediation of findings according to Datadog’s Vulnerability Management policy.
Regarding its Container Agent specifically, Datadog performs regular vulnerability static analysis on both its general availability (GA) and release candidate (RC) releases. The Datadog Container Agent can be found in public registries as mentioned in Docker Agent, and additionally, Datadog Agent source code is open source. This empowers customers to perform vulnerability scanning with their preferred tooling based on a cadence that meets their unique needs. This provides the required visibility for customers inclined to monitor the Datadog Agent for potential vulnerabilities.
If you believe you’ve discovered a bug in Datadog’s security, see Report An Issue. To submit a vulnerability inquiry on a specific product as an existing customer, reach out to Datadog Support through your standard support process. If submitting a support ticket through the Datadog website, set the Product type field to Vulnerability Inquiry on Datadog Product.
Running as an unprivileged user
By default, the Agent runs as the dd-agent user on Linux and as the ddagentuser account on Windows. The exceptions are as follows:
The system-probe runs as root on Linux and as LOCAL_SYSTEM on Windows.
The process-agent runs as LOCAL_SYSTEM on Windows.
The security-agent runs as root on Linux.
Secrets management
If you have a requirement to avoid storing secrets in plaintext in the Agent’s configuration files, you can leverage the secrets management package. This package allows the Agent to call a user-provided executable to handle retrieval or decryption of secrets, which are then loaded in memory by the Agent. You can design your executable according to your preferred key management service, authentication method, and continuous integration workflow.
Agent on non-government sites collects environmental, performance, and feature usage information about the Datadog Agent. When the Agent detects a government site, or the Datadog Agent FIPS Proxy is used, the Agent automatically disables this telemetry collection. When such detection is impossible (for example, if a proxy is being used), Agent telemetry is emitted, but immediately dropped at Datadog’s intake. To avoid this data from being emitted in the first place, Datadog recommends disabling Agent telemetry explicitly by updating the agent_telemetry setting in the Agent configuration file, as shown in the example below.
agent_telemetry:enabled:false
DD_AGENT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false
Datadog may collect environmental, performance, and feature usage information about the Datadog Agent. This may include diagnostic logs and crash dumps of the Datadog Agent with obfuscated stack traces to support and further improve the Datadog Agent.
You can disable this telemetry collection by updating the agent_telemetry setting in the Agent configuration file, as shown in the example below.
agent_telemetry:enabled:false
DD_AGENT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false
Telemetry content:
To view the latest Telemetry content, run the following command:
