# Brand\_image for Kibana branding can be a base64 encoded string

**URL:** <https://forum.search-guard.com/t/brand-image-for-kibana-branding-can-be-a-base64-encoded-string/4618>\
**Category:** Search Guard\
**Created:** [November 25, 2025, 9:26am UTC](https://forum.search-guard.com/t/brand-image-for-kibana-branding-can-be-a-base64-encoded-string/4618 "2025-11-25T09:26:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mikew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@mikew](https://forum.search-guard.com/u/mikew)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 9:26am UTC](https://forum.search-guard.com/t/brand-image-for-kibana-branding-can-be-a-base64-encoded-string/4618/1 "2025-11-25T09:26:25Z")

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This is a post about something I’ve discovered which maybe someone else will see and find useful. The `brand_image` setting for the Kibana login dialogue as described at

[https://docs.search-guard.com/latest/kibana-login-customizing#customizing-the-login-page](https://docs.search-guard.com/latest/kibana-login-customizing#customizing-the-login-page)

doesn’t have to point to an image that you are hosting on a webserver somewhere. If you don’t have anywhere suitable to host such an image you can put a base64 encoded version of it in the configuration file. E.g.

```auto
default:
  auth_domains:
  - type: "basic"
    message: "Some words here"
  login_page:
    # base64 of brandlogo.png
    # $ base64 -w 0 brandlogo.png
    brand_image: "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAT4AAABVCAQAAAB6dUCWAAAAIGNIUk0AAHomAACAhAAA+gAAAIDoAAB1MAAA6mAAADqYAAAXandsoonandsoonandsoon"

```

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**Author:** ![sirHusky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sirHusky](https://forum.search-guard.com/u/sirHusky)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.search-guard.com/t/brand-image-for-kibana-branding-can-be-a-base64-encoded-string/4618/2 "2025-11-25T14:03:21Z")

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@mikew thank you for bringing this to our attention, it does appear that this option is not outlined in the documentation. We will have this updated shortly.

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**Author:** ![mikew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@mikew](https://forum.search-guard.com/u/mikew)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://forum.search-guard.com/t/brand-image-for-kibana-branding-can-be-a-base64-encoded-string/4618/3 "2025-11-25T14:32:44Z")

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Arguably it’s covered by the documentation saying the value is “An absolute URL”. If one considers a data: URL to be absolute. I don’t think a data: URL can ever be relative. 🙂

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**Author:** ![system](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.search-guard.com/system/32/1870_2.png) [@system](https://forum.search-guard.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.search-guard.com/t/brand-image-for-kibana-branding-can-be-a-base64-encoded-string/4618/4 "2025-12-16T14:33:35Z")

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