Security checklist

The following checklist highlights the specific areas within Neo4j that may need extra attention to ensure the appropriate level of security for your application after Neo4j is deployed.

Deploy Neo4j on safe servers in secure networks:
1. Use subnets and firewalls to segment the network.
2. Open only the ports that you need. For a list of relevant ports, see Ports.
  
  In particular, ensure that there is no external access to the port specified by the setting server.backup.listen_address. Failing to protect this port may open a security hole by which an unauthorized user can make a copy of the database onto a different machine.
Check clustering ports and ensure they are blocked unless in use.
These ports are opened by default on all Enterprise instances and listen on the network if server.default_listen_address is changed from localhost. If not using clustering, ensure that external access to cluster ports (6000, 7000, 7688) is blocked by a firewall.
Disable unused clustering.
If clustering is not in use, consider explicitly binding cluster listen addresses to 127.0.0.1 to prevent unintended exposure:
- server.cluster.listen_address=127.0.0.1:6000
- server.cluster.raft.listen_address=127.0.0.1:7000
Protect data-at-rest:
1. Use volume encryption (e.g., Bitlocker).
2. Manage access to database dumps and backups. Refer to Back up an offline database and backups Back up an online database for more information.
3. Manage access to configuration files, data files, and transaction logs by ensuring the correct file permissions on the Neo4j files. Refer to Default file locations for instructions on permission levels.
4. If a directory stores sensitive data, it must never be world-readable or world-executable. Even if files inside are restricted, a world-executable directory can leak structure.
  - On Linux, follow the recommendations:
    
    Scenario Recommended mode
    
    Only owner can access
    
    700
    
    Owner and specific group may have access
    
    750
    
    Ensure the process creating the directory uses a restrictive umask (e.g., 077) to prevent overly permissive defaults.
  - On Windows, allow access only to the owning account (or service account) and Administrators. Remove access for Users, Authenticated Users, and Everyone.
    Before removing broad permissions disable inheritance on the directory, otherwise they may be reintroduced from the parent directory.
    
    Consider security recommendations above when creating a directory for backup files.
Protect data-in-transit:
1. For remote access to the Neo4j database, only use encrypted Bolt or HTTPS.
2. Use SSL certificates issued from a trusted Certificate Authority.
3. For configuring your Neo4j installation to use encrypted communication, refer to SSL framework.
4. If using clustering, configure and use encryption for intra-cluster communication. For details, see Intra-cluster encryption.
5. If using clustering, configure and use encryption for backups. This ensures that only servers with the specified SSL policy and SSL certificates can access the server and perform the backup.
6. For configuring your Bolt and HTTPS connectors, refer to Configure network connectors.
7. If using LDAP, configure your LDAP system with encryption via StartTLS. For more information, see Use LDAP with encryption via StartTLS.
Be on top of the security for custom extensions:
1. Validate any custom code you deploy (procedures and unmanaged extensions) and ensure that they do not unintentionally expose any parts of the product or data.
2. Survey the settings dbms.security.procedures.unrestricted and dbms.security.procedures.allowlist to ensure that they exclusively contain intentionally exposed extensions.
Make sure you have the Default file locations on the Neo4j files.
Protect against the execution of unauthorized extensions by restricting access to the bin, lib, and plugins directories. Only the operating system user that Neo4j runs as should have permissions to those files. Refer to Default file locations for instructions on permission levels.
With LOAD CSV enabled, ensure that it does not allow unauthorized users to import data. How to configure LOAD CSV is described in Cypher Manual → LOAD CSV.
Use Neo4j authentication. The setting dbms.security.auth_enabled controls native authentication. The default value is true.
Survey your JVM-specific configuration settings in the neo4j.conf file for ports relating to deprecated functions, such as remote JMX (controlled by the parameter setting server.jvm.additional=-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=3637).
Review Browser credentials handling to determine whether the default credentials handling in Neo4j Browser complies with your security regulations. Follow the instructions to configure it if necessary.
Use the latest patch version of Neo4j and set up a process to update it when security advisories are published.

Scenario	Recommended mode
Only owner can access	`700`
Owner and specific group may have access	`750`

Glossary

allocator: A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.
asynchronous replication: Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.
Aura instance: A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.
auto-commit transaction: An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.
Bolt protocol: Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.
bookmark: A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.
category (Bloom): A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).
causal consistency: All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.
cluster: A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.
client application: Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.
commit: A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.
composite database: Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.
constraint: Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.
Cypher®: Neo4j’s graph query language.
data model: A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.
database: A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.
database vs graph: Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.
Database Management System: Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.
database schema: The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.
deallocate: An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.
degree (of a node): The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.
disaster recovery: A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.
driver: A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.
election: In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.
entity: A node or a relationship.
expression (Cypher): A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.
fabric: Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.
fault tolerance: A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.
follower: A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.
Generative AI (GenAI): A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.
graph: A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.
index: Data structure that improves read performance of a database.
knowledge graph: A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.
label: Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.
leader: A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.
main database: In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.
motif: A description of a specific pattern within a graph.
node: A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.
operator: A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.
parameter: Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.
path: A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.
pattern: A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.
perspective (Bloom): A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.
primary: A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.
primary vs secondary: In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.
project (Aura): An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.
property: Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.
query (Cypher): A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.
Raft group: A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.
Raft group member: A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.
Raft log: A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.
Raft protocol: The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.
read scaling: Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).
relationship: A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.
secondary: An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.
seed: A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.
server: A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.
session: A causally linked sequence of transactions.
session consistency: An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.
standalone: A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.
synchronous replication: Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.
system database: A database used by Neo4j to store system information.
tenant (Aura): An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.
tool asset database: In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.
topology: A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.
transaction: A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).