Ticket #4821: Coverage renewal
Policyholder NAME (EMAIL) asked about renewing the plan on the account ending ACCOUNT.
Redact PII from search results
Search Redact
Search Redact is an open source plugin for OpenSearch and Elasticsearch that redacts PII and PHI from search results at query time, before they reach the user. It runs inside your cluster and applies a Phileas policy, the same policy format Philter uses, passed with each search request.
PII redacted from results at query time
A user runs an ordinary search. Search Redact applies your Phileas policy to the matching documents inside the cluster, so the hits come back with sensitive fields redacted before they reach the user. The stored documents are untouched.
Ticket #1902: Billing update
Caller NAME at PHONE requested a card change; SSN SSN on file.
Redaction happens in the response path, per query, using the policy you pass. Nothing in the index is rewritten.
Why Search Redact
Redaction at query time
Sensitive fields are redacted as results are returned, so PII and PHI do not have to leave the cluster in the clear. The stored documents are untouched; redaction is applied to the response.
Built on Phileas
Detection is the open source Phileas engine: pattern matching for structured identifiers and dictionaries for names and places. Policies use the same Phileas format as Philter. PhEye AI models are not yet supported in the plugin.
Open source and self-hosted
Apache-2.0 licensed and runs entirely inside your own cluster. No data leaves your environment for redaction, which keeps your compliance boundary intact.
Available for OpenSearch and Elasticsearch
The same plugin, built for each platform. Both are Apache-2.0 licensed and built on Phileas.
OpenSearch
Install the plugin in your OpenSearch cluster to redact sensitive fields from search results. See the OpenSearch walkthrough.
Elasticsearch
The Elasticsearch build of the same plugin, with the same query-time redaction. See the Elasticsearch walkthrough.
Frequently asked questions
If something here isn’t covered, get in touch and we’ll answer.
What is Search Redact?
Search Redact is an open source plugin for OpenSearch and Elasticsearch that redacts PII and PHI from search results at query time. It runs inside your cluster and uses the Phileas engine for detection, so the fields you choose come back redacted before results reach the user.
Does Search Redact change my indexed documents?
No. Redaction is applied to the search response, not to the stored documents. Your index is left untouched; the plugin redacts the configured fields on the way out.
What can Search Redact detect and redact?
Detection comes from Phileas: pattern matching with validators for structured identifiers like Social Security numbers, credit cards, and email addresses, plus dictionaries for names and places. PhEye AI models are not yet supported in the plugin. You control what is detected and how it is replaced with a policy. Detection is probabilistic and designed to reduce exposure rather than catch every instance, so you are responsible for validating the output against your own data.
How is Search Redact configured?
The policy and the field (or comma-separated list of fields) to redact are part of the search request, in an
ext.search-redact block. Different applications can apply different policies to the same index without reindexing. Redaction applies only when a request includes the block, so the plugin is not an access control: a client that omits it gets the stored data, and enforcing redaction needs a gateway or role restriction in front of the cluster.How is Search Redact different from Phinder and Philter?
Phinder finds where sensitive data lives at rest, Philter is the self-hosted redaction API and engine, and Search Redact redacts data on its way out of a search cluster. All three use the Phileas policy format. Each bundles its own Phileas, which can be a different version, so check a policy in each place you use it.
Is Search Redact open source?
Yes. Both the OpenSearch and Elasticsearch plugins are open source under the Apache License, version 2, on GitHub (OpenSearch and Elasticsearch). Run them inside your own cluster with no per-seat fees and no vendor lock-in.
Add Search Redact to your cluster
Install the plugin for OpenSearch or Elasticsearch to redact PII and PHI from your search results, or talk to us about your search privacy requirements.