diff --git a/config/kibana.yml b/config/kibana.yml
index 0e122d193dcf7..8694f65c61a5a 100644
--- a/config/kibana.yml
+++ b/config/kibana.yml
@@ -61,6 +61,10 @@
 # must be a positive integer.
 # elasticsearch.requestTimeout: 30000
 
+# List of Kibana client-side headers to send to Elasticsearch. To send *no* client-side
+# headers, set this value to [] (an empty list).
+# elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist: [ authorization ]
+
 # Time in milliseconds for Elasticsearch to wait for responses from shards. Set to 0 to disable.
 # elasticsearch.shardTimeout: 0
 
diff --git a/docs/kibana-yml.asciidoc b/docs/kibana-yml.asciidoc
index fa4baf0ae4548..2ee6aa698756e 100644
--- a/docs/kibana-yml.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/kibana-yml.asciidoc
@@ -29,7 +29,9 @@ to `false`.
 wait for Elasticsearch to respond to pings.
 `elasticsearch.requestTimeout:`:: *Default: 300000* Time in milliseconds to wait for responses from the back end or 
 Elasticsearch. This value must be a positive integer.
-`elasticsearch.shardTimeout:`:: *Default: 0* Time in milliseconds for Elasticsearch to wait for responses from shards. Set 
+`elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist:`:: *Default: `[ 'authorization' ]`* List of Kibana client-side headers to send to Elasticsearch.
+To send *no* client-side headers, set this value to [] (an empty list).
+`elasticsearch.shardTimeout:`:: *Default: 0* Time in milliseconds for Elasticsearch to wait for responses from shards. Set
 to 0 to disable.
 `elasticsearch.startupTimeout:`:: *Default: 5000* Time in milliseconds to wait for Elasticsearch at Kibana startup before 
 retrying.
diff --git a/docs/settings.asciidoc b/docs/settings.asciidoc
index 0f105dc33e06d..1b99bec2a9307 100644
--- a/docs/settings.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/settings.asciidoc
@@ -376,6 +376,10 @@ deprecated[4.2, The names of several Kibana server properties changed in the 4.2
 + 
 *default*: `500000`
 
+`elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist:` added[5.0]:: List of Kibana client-side headers to send to Elasticsearch. To send *no* client-side headers, set this value to [] (an empty list).
++
+*default*: `[ 'authorization' ]`
+
 `elasticsearch.shardTimeout` added[4.2]:: How long Elasticsearch should wait for responses from shards. Set to 0 to disable.
 +
 *alias*: `shard_timeout` deprecated[4.2]
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/index.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/index.js
index e41c5113af600..7496e52403cb1 100644
--- a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/index.js
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/index.js
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ import healthCheck from './lib/health_check';
 import exposeClient from './lib/expose_client';
 import createProxy, { createPath } from './lib/create_proxy';
 
+const DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS = [ 'authorization' ];
+
 module.exports = function ({ Plugin }) {
   return new Plugin({
     require: ['kibana'],
@@ -20,6 +22,7 @@ module.exports = function ({ Plugin }) {
         password: string(),
         shardTimeout: number().default(0),
         requestTimeout: number().default(30000),
+        requestHeadersWhitelist: array().items().single().default(DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS),
         pingTimeout: number().default(ref('requestTimeout')),
         startupTimeout: number().default(5000),
         ssl: object({
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/__tests__/map_uri.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/__tests__/map_uri.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..540ff912e7ba1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/__tests__/map_uri.js
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+import expect from 'expect.js';
+import mapUri from '../map_uri';
+import sinon from 'sinon';
+
+describe('plugins/elasticsearch', function () {
+  describe('lib/map_uri', function () {
+
+    let request;
+
+    beforeEach(function () {
+      request = {
+        path: '/elasticsearch/some/path',
+        headers: {
+          cookie: 'some_cookie_string',
+          'accept-encoding': 'gzip, deflate',
+          origin: 'https://localhost:5601',
+          'content-type': 'application/json',
+          'x-my-custom-header': '42',
+          accept: 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
+          authorization: '2343d322eda344390fdw42'
+        }
+      };
+    });
+
+    it('only sends the whitelisted request headers', function () {
+
+      const get = sinon.stub()
+      .withArgs('elasticsearch.url').returns('http://foobar:9200')
+      .withArgs('elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist').returns(['x-my-custom-HEADER', 'Authorization']);
+      const config = function () { return { get: get }; };
+      const server = {
+        config: config
+      };
+
+      mapUri(server)(request, function (err, upstreamUri, upstreamHeaders) {
+        expect(err).to.be(null);
+        expect(upstreamHeaders).to.have.property('authorization');
+        expect(upstreamHeaders).to.have.property('x-my-custom-header');
+        expect(Object.keys(upstreamHeaders).length).to.be(2);
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('sends no headers if whitelist is set to []', function () {
+
+      const get = sinon.stub()
+      .withArgs('elasticsearch.url').returns('http://foobar:9200')
+      .withArgs('elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist').returns([]);
+      const config = function () { return { get: get }; };
+      const server = {
+        config: config
+      };
+
+      mapUri(server)(request, function (err, upstreamUri, upstreamHeaders) {
+        expect(err).to.be(null);
+        expect(Object.keys(upstreamHeaders).length).to.be(0);
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('sends no headers if whitelist is set to no value', function () {
+
+      const get = sinon.stub()
+      .withArgs('elasticsearch.url').returns('http://foobar:9200')
+      .withArgs('elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist').returns([ null ]); // This is how Joi returns it
+      const config = function () { return { get: get }; };
+      const server = {
+        config: config
+      };
+
+      mapUri(server)(request, function (err, upstreamUri, upstreamHeaders) {
+        expect(err).to.be(null);
+        expect(Object.keys(upstreamHeaders).length).to.be(0);
+      });
+    });
+
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/call_with_request.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/call_with_request.js
index 385f3e61cc986..870b856de5fce 100644
--- a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/call_with_request.js
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/call_with_request.js
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@ import Promise from 'bluebird';
 import Boom from 'boom';
 import getBasicAuthRealm from './get_basic_auth_realm';
 import toPath from 'lodash/internal/toPath';
+import filterHeaders from './filter_headers';
 
-module.exports = (client) => {
+module.exports = (server, client) => {
   return (req, endpoint, params = {}) => {
-    if (req.headers.authorization) {
-      _.set(params, 'headers.authorization', req.headers.authorization);
-    }
+    const filteredHeaders = filterHeaders(req.headers, server.config().get('elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist'));
+    _.set(params, 'headers', filteredHeaders);
     const path = toPath(endpoint);
     const api = _.get(client, path);
     let apiContext = _.get(client, path.slice(0, -1));
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/create_proxy.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/create_proxy.js
index b2a82a07a1bca..2ef2bd1da56d8 100644
--- a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/create_proxy.js
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/create_proxy.js
@@ -16,10 +16,12 @@ function createProxy(server, method, route, config) {
     handler: {
       proxy: {
         mapUri: mapUri(server),
-        passThrough: true,
         agent: createAgent(server),
         xforward: true,
-        timeout: server.config().get('elasticsearch.requestTimeout')
+        timeout: server.config().get('elasticsearch.requestTimeout'),
+        onResponse: function (err, responseFromUpstream, request, reply) {
+          reply(err, responseFromUpstream);
+        }
       }
     },
   };
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/expose_client.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/expose_client.js
index 0c81c07d25c7f..299b85bdd5c3d 100644
--- a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/expose_client.js
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/expose_client.js
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ module.exports = function (server) {
   server.expose('ElasticsearchClientLogging', ElasticsearchClientLogging);
   server.expose('client', client);
   server.expose('createClient', createClient);
-  server.expose('callWithRequestFactory', callWithRequest);
-  server.expose('callWithRequest', callWithRequest(noAuthClient));
+  server.expose('callWithRequestFactory', _.partial(callWithRequest, server));
+  server.expose('callWithRequest', callWithRequest(server, noAuthClient));
   server.expose('errors', elasticsearch.errors);
 
   return client;
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/filter_headers.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/filter_headers.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..285b45f560697
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/filter_headers.js
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import _ from 'lodash';
+
+export default function (originalHeaders, headersToKeep) {
+
+  const normalizeHeader = function (header) {
+    if (!header) {
+      return '';
+    }
+    header = header.toString();
+    return header.trim().toLowerCase();
+  };
+
+  // Normalize list of headers we want to allow in upstream request
+  const headersToKeepNormalized = headersToKeep.map(normalizeHeader);
+
+  // Normalize original headers in request
+  const originalHeadersNormalized = _.mapKeys(originalHeaders, function (headerValue, headerName) {
+    return normalizeHeader(headerName);
+  });
+
+  return _.pick(originalHeaders, headersToKeepNormalized);
+}
diff --git a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/map_uri.js b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/map_uri.js
index 79a2357f07086..38068ffa35809 100644
--- a/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/map_uri.js
+++ b/src/plugins/elasticsearch/lib/map_uri.js
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 import querystring from 'querystring';
 import { resolve } from 'url';
+import filterHeaders from './filter_headers';
+
 module.exports = function mapUri(server, prefix) {
+
   const config = server.config();
   return function (request, done) {
     const path = request.path.replace('/elasticsearch', '');
@@ -11,6 +14,7 @@ module.exports = function mapUri(server, prefix) {
     }
     const query = querystring.stringify(request.query);
     if (query) url += '?' + query;
-    done(null, url);
+    const filteredHeaders = filterHeaders(request.headers, server.config().get('elasticsearch.requestHeadersWhitelist'));
+    done(null, url, filteredHeaders);
   };
 };