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Apache Kafka Series - Kafka Security | SSL SASL Kerberos ACL (Udemy.com)

Hands-On Course - Kafka Security Setup in AWS with SSL Encryption & Authentication, SASL Kerberos, ACL in Zookeeper

Created by: Stephane Maarek

Last updated September 2026

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What you will learn

  • Setup and use SSL encryption in Kafka
  • Setup and use SSL authentication in Kafka
  • Setup and use SASL Kerberos authentication in Kafka
  • Create and use ACLs in Kafka
  • Configure Kafka Clients to make them work with security
  • Configure Zookeeper Security

How it compares

Against the other 150 rated Udemy courses in Hadoop on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 68% of them
  • Reviews1,858#37 of 151 by number of reviews
  • Length3.9 hoursshorter than 74% of them
  • Last updatedSeptember 2026more recently than 98% of them

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Course Description

If you've struggled setting up Kafka Security, or can't make sense of the documentation, this course is for you

First of all, an insecure cluster is a big problem:

  • anyone can read / write to any topic, and this can lead to bad data or data leak

  • you don't know who is connected to your cluster

  • data isn't encrypted in flight and could be intercepted by hackers

In this course, you'll learn Kafka Security, with Encryption (SSL), Authentication (SSL & SASL), and Authorization (ACL).

Over 1800 students and 160 reviews later, we're convinced this course can save you a lot of time.

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Kafka Security is important for the following reasons:

Encryption (SSL) for Apache Kafka

> Ensure data is securely transported from machine to machine
> Prevent MIDM (man-in-the-middle attacks) on your Kafka Cluster
> No more PLAINTEXT data going around in your network

Authentication (SSL & SASL) for Apache Kafka 

> Ensure only clients with credentials can access your clusters
> Give each of your clients a user-id, therefore enabling the possibility of controlling their access using ACL

Authorization (ACL) for Apache Kafka

> Ensure the clients can only read / write topics based on administrator rules
> Ensure clients cannot create / delete topics
> Provide the audit team the guarantee that the cluster is secure


Hands On & Theory Based Course

Note: This course only deals with SSL for encryption & Authentication and SASL Kerberos, not other mechanisms. It also does provide an overview to enable security in a multi-broker setup, but that last part is left for the student to investigate and practice. 

This course is the first and only available Kafka Security Course on the web. Get it now to become an Apache Kafka expert!

Section outline:

  1. Course Introduction: Let's learn why we need Security in Apache Kafka

  2. Kafka Setup: Quickly setup Kafka in AWS EC2 and test it, as a pre-requisite to setting up security on it

  3. SSL Encryption in Kafka: Setup a Certificate Authority and create certificates for your Kafka broker and Kafka client

  4. SSL Authentication in Kafka: Learn how to force clients to authenticate using SSL to connect to your Kafka Cluster

  5. SASL Authentication - Kerberos GSSAPI in Kafka: Setup Kerberos on an EC2 machine and create credentials for Kafka and Clients. 

  6. Authorization in Kafka: Learn how to enforce ACLs in Kafka and use the CLI to authorize clients. 

  7. Zookeeper Security: Learn how to secure Zookeeper using Kerberos


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Instructor

My name is Stephane Maarek, and I'll be your instructor in this course. I teach about Apache Kafka, the Kafka ecosystem and Kafka Certifications with my focus always on helping my students improve their professional proficiencies. I am also the co-founder of Conduktor: an enterprise Apache Kafka platform & UI to help everyone use Kafka.

Throughout my career in designing and delivering these certifications and courses, I have already taught 1,000,000+ students and gotten 350,000+ reviews!

Gerd Koenig is one of the instructors of this course. He is an Apache Kafka Expert, and has done countless of production deployments and security setup at many of his clients. He will be taking the leads on all the Hands-On Lecture. 

With Apache Kafka becoming much more than a buzzword out there, I've decided it's time for students to properly learn how to be a Kafka professional. So, let’s kick start the course! You are in good hands!

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This Course Also Comes With:

  • Lifetime Access to All Future Updates

  • A responsive instructor in the Q&A Section

  • Links to interesting articles, and lots of good code to base your next applications onto

  • Udemy Certificate of Completion Ready for Download

This is the course that could improve your career!

Apache Kafka is a skill in high demand and there are not enough people to fulfill all the open positions. You can boost your income, take on new roles and fun challenges. Many of my students are now the Kafka experts of their companies! You can be the next!

I hope to see you inside the course!

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Note: Looking for more advanced Kafka concepts? There are many volumes in the Apache Kafka Series:

  • Learn Kafka for Beginners v2 (great to start)

  • Kafka Connect Hands-On Learning

  • Kafka Streams for Data Processing

  • KSQL on ksqlDB - Hands On!

  • Kafka Cluster Setup & Administration

  • Confluent Schema Registry & Kafka REST Proxy

  • Kafka Security (SSL SASL ACL)

  • Kafka Monitoring and Operations

Happy learning!


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Instructor Details

Stephane Maarek

Stephane is a solutions architect, consultant and software developer that has a particular interest in all things related to Cloud & Big Data. He's also a many-times best seller instructor on Udemy for his courses in AWS and Apache Kafka.


[See FAQ below to see in which order you can take my courses]

Stéphane is recognized as an AWS Hero and is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional & AWS Certified DevOps Professional. He loves to teach people how to use the AWS properly, to get them ready for their AWS certifications, and most importantly for the real world.

He also loves Apache Kafka. He used on the Program Committee organizing the Kafka Summit in New York, London and San Francisco. He also was an active member of the Apache Kafka community, and has authored blogs on Medium and the guest blog for Confluent. He also has co-founded Conduktor, a prominent company in the Kafka ecosystem.


During his spare time, Stéphane composes piano music, that he publishes online under the artist name Makera ?


FAQ: In which order should you learn?...

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Reviews

4.5

1,858 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Ronson Xaviour on 1/22/2025

This course provides a good starting point for understanding Kafka security concepts like SSL, SASL, and Kerberos. However, since the content was recorded in early 2018, some commands may be outdated. It lacks coverage of advanced configurations like inter-broker SSL_SASL. It's a helpful course for beginners but don't expect it to be a comprehensive guide to mastering all aspects of Kafka security. Thanks!

By Cupertinosk on 12/16/2020

This was an exciting course. I did learn a lot about Kafka Security. Both Stephane and Gerd are excellent in the content. A bit let down from Gerd during the initial few sessions to have the recording carried out on the laptop microphone and doesn't appeal to be professional. This is almost 2021 and we have OAUTHTOKENBEARER not covered in this course. Can you kindly update this course on that front?

By Bart van Deenen on 11/21/2020

Perfect match. I knew Kafka in depth, but had never used authentication/authorization on it.

By Eric PAETZ on 10/21/2020

Most complex lecture of the series. Very well done.

By John Hunter on 10/19/2020

Would have been a 5 star in 2017. The videos are over three years old at this point (2020), the technologies have advanced and I've had great difficulty getting through the exercises. Videos that should have taken 30 minutes to get through took over 4 hours to complete due to technical difficulties. I cannot recommend this course in the state that it's in.

By Andrea Monacchi on 10/10/2020

Very good and thorough tutorial on Kafka security.

By Sanda Oancea on 10/6/2020

Great explanation and easy to follow!

By Dalibor Blazeivc on 10/1/2020

Course really gave me the insight in the topic I am working with in my daily tasks

By Dnyaneshwar on 9/20/2020

Looks good to start with this session

By Jeremy Ber on 9/13/2020

Gerd was a very dry instructor and did not include much of what he was typing in the resources. This made his sections very difficult to follow and keep up.

By Piyush Kumar on 9/9/2020

Good hands on learning

By Eilyn Escalona on 9/7/2020

Muy bueno, excelente material

Showing 12 of 173 reviews

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Overall Score : 90 / 100