The Doris permission management system is modeled after the MySQL permission management mechanism. It supports fine-grained permission control at the row and column level, role-based access control, and also supports a whitelist mechanism.

Glossary

  1. User Identity

    Within a permission system, a user is identified as a User Identity. A User Identity consists of two parts: username and host. The username is the user’s name, consisting of English letters (both uppercase and lowercase). host represents the IP from which the user connection originates. User Identity is represented as username@'host', indicating username from host.

    Another representation of User Identity is username@['domain'], where domain refers to a domain name that can be resolved into a set of IPs through DNS. Eventually, this is represented as a set of username@'host', hence moving forward, we uniformly use username@'host' to denote it.

  2. Privilege

    Privileges apply to nodes, data directories, databases, or tables. Different privileges represent different operation permissions.

  3. Role

    Doris allows the creation of custom-named roles. A role can be viewed as a collection of privileges. Newly created users can be assigned a role, automatically inheriting the privileges of that role. Subsequent changes to the role’s privileges will also reflect on the permissions of all users associated with that role.

  4. User Property

    User properties are directly affiliated with a user, not the User Identity. Meaning, both user@'192.%' and user@['domain'] share the same set of user properties, which belong to the user user, not to user@'192.%' or user@['domain'].

    User properties include but are not limited to: maximum number of user connections, import cluster configurations, etc.

Authentication and Authorization Framework

The process of a user logging into Apache Doris is divided into two parts: Authentication and Authorization.

  • Authentication: Identity verification is conducted based on the credentials provided by the user (such as username, client IP, password). Once verified, the individual user is mapped to a system-defined User Identity.
  • Authorization: Based on the acquired User Identity, it checks whether the user has the necessary permissions for the intended operations, according to the privileges associated with that User Identity.

Authentication

Doris supports built-in authentication schemes as well as LDAP authentication.

Doris Built-in Authentication Scheme

Authentication is based on usernames, passwords, and other information stored within Doris itself.

Administrators create users with the CREATE USER command and view all created users with the SHOW ALL GRANTS command.

When a user logs in, the system verifies whether the username, password, and client IP address are correct.

Password Policy

Doris supports the following password policies to assist users in better password management.

  1. PASSWORD_HISTORY

    Determines whether a user can reuse a historical password when resetting their current password. For example, PASSWORD_HISTORY 10 means the last 10 passwords cannot be reused as a new password. Setting PASSWORD_HISTORY DEFAULT will use the value from the global variable password_history. A setting of 0 disables this feature. The default is 0.

    Examples:

    • Set a global variable: SET GLOBAL password_history = 10
    • Set for a user: ALTER USER user1@'ip' PASSWORD_HISTORY 10

  2. PASSWORD_EXPIRE

    Sets the expiration time for the current user’s password. For instance, PASSWORD_EXPIRE INTERVAL 10 DAY means the password will expire after 10 days. PASSWORD_EXPIRE NEVER indicates the password never expires. Setting PASSWORD_EXPIRE DEFAULT will use the value from the global variable default_password_lifetime (in days). The default is NEVER (or 0), indicating it does not expire.

    Examples:

    • Set a global variable: SET GLOBAL default_password_lifetime = 1
    • Set for a user: ALTER USER user1@'ip' PASSWORD_EXPIRE INTERVAL 10 DAY

  3. FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS and PASSWORD_LOCK_TIME

    Configures the number of incorrect password attempts after which the user account will be locked and sets the lock duration. For example, FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS 3 PASSWORD_LOCK_TIME 1 DAY means if there are 3 incorrect logins, the account will be locked for one day. Administrators can unlock the account using the ALTER USER statement.

    Example:

    • Set for a user: ALTER USER user1@'ip' FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS 3 PASSWORD_LOCK_TIME 1 DAY

  4. Password Strength

    This is controlled by the global variable validate_password_policy. The default is NONE/0, which means no password strength checking. If set to STRONG/2, the password must include at least three of the following: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters, and must be at least 8 characters long.

    Example:

    • SET validate_password_policy=STRONG

For more help, please refer to ALTER USER.

LDAP-based Authentication Scheme

Please refer to LDAP-based Authentication Scheme.

Authorization

Permission Operations

Types of Permissions

Doris currently supports the following permissions:

  1. Node_priv

    Node modification permission. Includes adding, deleting, and offlining FE, BE, BROKER nodes.

    Root users have this permission by default. Users who possess both Grant_priv and Node_priv can grant this permission to other users.

    This permission can only be granted at the Global level.

  2. Grant_priv

    Permission modification authority. Allows execution of operations including granting, revoking, adding/deleting/modifying users/roles.

    Before version 2.1.2, when granting permissions to other users/roles, the current user only needed the respective level’s Grant_priv permission. After version 2.1.2, the current user also needs permission for the resource they wish to grant.

    When assigning roles to other users, Global level Grant_priv permission is required.

  3. Select_priv

    Read-only permission for data directories, databases, and tables.

  4. Load_priv

    Write permission for data directories, databases, and tables. Includes Load, Insert, Delete, etc.

  5. Alter_priv

    Alteration permissions for data directories, databases, and tables. Includes renaming libraries/tables, adding/deleting/modifying columns, adding/deleting partitions, etc.

  6. Create_priv

    Permission to create data directories, databases, tables, and views.

  7. Drop_priv

    Permission to delete data directories, databases, tables, and views.

  8. Usage_priv

    Usage permissions for Resources and Workload Groups.

  9. Show_view_priv

    Permission to execute SHOW CREATE VIEW.

Permission Levels

Global Permissions

Permissions granted through the GRANT statement with *.*.* scope. These permissions apply to any table within any catalog.

Catalog Permissions

Permissions granted through the GRANT statement with ctl.*.* scope. These permissions apply to any table within the specified catalog.

Database Permissions

Permissions granted through the GRANT statement with ctl.db.* scope. These permissions apply to any table within the specified database.

Table Permissions

Permissions granted through the GRANT statement with ctl.db.tbl scope. These permissions apply to any column within the specified table.

Column Permissions

Column permissions are primarily used to restrict user access to certain columns within a table. Specifically, column permissions allow administrators to set viewing, editing, and other rights for certain columns, controlling user access and manipulation of specific column data.

Permissions for specific columns of a table can be granted with GRANT Select_priv(col1,col2) ON ctl.db.tbl TO user1.

Currently, column permissions support only Select_priv.

Row-Level Permissions

Row Policies enable administrators to define access policies based on fields within the data, controlling which users can access which rows.

Specifically, Row Policies allow administrators to create rules that can filter or restrict user access to rows based on actual values stored in the data.

From version 1.2, row-level permissions can be created with the CREATE ROW POLICY command.

From version 2.1.2, support for setting row-level permissions through Apache Ranger’s Row Level Filter is available.

Usage Permissions

  • Resource Permissions

    Resource permissions are set specifically for Resources, unrelated to permissions for databases or tables, and can only assign Usage_priv and Grant_priv.

    Permissions for all Resources can be granted with the GRANT USAGE_PRIV ON RESOURCE '%' TO user1.

  • Workload Group Permissions

    Workload Group permissions are set specifically for Workload Groups, unrelated to permissions for databases or tables, and can only assign Usage_priv and Grant_priv.

    Permissions for all Workload Groups can be granted with GRANT USAGE_PRIV ON WORKLOAD GROUP '%' TO user1.

Data Masking

Data masking is a method to protect sensitive data by modifying, replacing, or hiding the original data, such that the masked data retains certain formats and characteristics while no longer containing sensitive information.

For example, administrators may choose to replace part or all of the digits of sensitive fields like credit card numbers or ID numbers with asterisks * or other characters, or replace real names with pseudonyms.

From version 2.1.2, support for setting data masking policies for certain columns through Apache Ranger’s Data Masking is available, currently only configurable via Apache Ranger.

Doris Built-in Authorization Scheme

Doris’s permission design is based on the RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) model, where users are associated with roles, and roles are associated with permissions. Users are indirectly linked to permissions through their roles.

When a role is deleted, users automatically lose all permissions associated with that role.

When a user is disassociated from a role, they automatically lose all permissions of that role.

When permissions are added to or removed from a role, the permissions of the users associated with that role change accordingly.

  1. ┌────────┐        ┌────────┐         ┌────────┐
  2. │  user1 ├────┬───►  role1 ├────┬────►  priv1 │
  3. └────────┘    │   └────────┘    │    └────────┘
  4.               │                 │
  5.               │                 │
  6.               │   ┌────────┐    │
  7.               │   │  role2 ├────┤
  8. ┌────────┐    │   └────────┘    │    ┌────────┐
  9. │  user2 ├────┘                 │  ┌─►  priv2 │
  10. └────────┘                      │  │ └────────┘
  11.                   ┌────────┐    │  │
  12.            ┌──────►  role3 ├────┘  │
  13.            │      └────────┘       │
  14.            │                       │
  15.            │                       │
  16. ┌────────┐ │      ┌────────┐       │ ┌────────┐
  17. │  userN ├─┴──────►  roleN ├───────┴─►  privN │
  18. └────────┘        └────────┘         └────────┘

As shown above:

User1 and user2 both have permission priv1 through role1.

UserN has permission priv1 through role3, and permissions priv2 and privN through roleN. Thus, userN has permissions priv1, priv2, and privN simultaneously.

For ease of user operations, it is possible to directly grant permissions to a user. Internally, a unique default role is created for each user. When permissions are granted to a user, it is essentially granting permissions to the user’s default role.

The default role cannot be deleted, nor can it be assigned to someone else. When a user is deleted, their default role is automatically deleted as well.

Authorization Scheme Based on Apache Ranger

Please refer to Authorization Scheme Based on Apache Ranger.

Common Questions

Explanation of Permissions

  1. Users with ADMIN privileges or GRANT privileges at the GLOBAL level can perform the following operations:

    • CREATE USER
    • DROP USER
    • ALTER USER
    • SHOW GRANTS
    • CREATE ROLE
    • DROP ROLE
    • ALTER ROLE
    • SHOW ROLES
    • SHOW PROPERTY FOR USER

  2. GRANT/REVOKE

    • Users with ADMIN privileges can grant or revoke permissions for any user.
    • Users with ADMIN or GLOBAL level GRANT privileges can assign roles to users.
    • Users who have the corresponding level of GRANT privilege and the permissions to be assigned can distribute those permissions to users/roles.

  3. SET PASSWORD

    • Users with ADMIN privileges or GLOBAL level GRANT privileges can set passwords for non-ROOT users.
    • Ordinary users can set the password for their corresponding User Identity. Their corresponding User Identity can be viewed with the SELECT CURRENT_USER() command.
    • ROOT users can change their own password.

Additional Information

  1. When Doris is initialized, the following users and roles are automatically created:

    • operator role: This role has Node_priv and Admin_priv, i.e., all permissions in Doris.
    • admin role: This role has Admin_priv, i.e., all permissions except for node changes.
    • root@’%’: root user, allowed to log in from any node, with the operator role.
    • admin@’%’: admin user, allowed to log in from any node, with the admin role.

  2. It is not supported to delete or change the permissions of roles or users created by default.

  3. There is only one user with the operator role, which is Root. There can be multiple users with the admin role.

  4. Some potentially conflicting operations are explained as follows:

    1. Domain and IP conflict:

      Suppose the following user is created:

      CREATE USER user1@['domain'];

      And granted:

      GRANT SELECT_PRIV ON *.* TO user1@['domain']

      This domain is resolved to two IPs: ip1 and ip2.

      Suppose later, we grant a separate permission to user1@'ip1':

      GRANT ALTER_PRIV ON . TO user1@'ip1';

      Then user1@'ip1' will have permissions for both Select_priv and Alter_priv. And when we change the permissions for user1@['domain'] again, user1@'ip1' will not follow the change.

    2. Duplicate IP conflict:

      Suppose the following users are created:

      1. CREATE USER user1@'%' IDENTIFIED BY "12345";
      2. CREATE USER user1@'192.%' IDENTIFIED BY "abcde";

      In terms of priority, '192.%' takes precedence over '%', so when user user1 from machine 192.168.1.1 tries to log into Doris using password '12345', access will be denied.

  5. Forgotten Password

    If you forget the password and cannot log into Doris, you can add skip_localhost_auth_check=true to the FE’s config file and restart the FE, thus logging into Doris as root without a password from the local machine.

    After logging in, you can reset the password using the SET PASSWORD command.

  6. No user can reset the root user’s password except for the root user themselves.

  7. Admin_priv permissions can only be granted or revoked at the GLOBAL level.

  8. current_user() and user()

    Users can view their current_user and user by executing SELECT current_user() and SELECT user() respectively. Here, current_user indicates the identity the user authenticated with, while user is the actual User Identity at the moment.

    For example:

    Suppose user1@'192.%' is created, and then user user1 logs in from 192.168.10.1, then the current_user would be user1@'192.%', and user would be user1@'192.168.10.1'.

    All permissions are granted to a specific current_user, and the real user has all the permissions of the corresponding current_user.

Best Practices

Here are some examples of use cases for the Doris permission system.

  1. Scenario 1

    Users of the Doris cluster are divided into administrators (Admin), development engineers (RD), and users (Client). Administrators have all permissions over the entire cluster, primarily responsible for cluster setup and node management. Development engineers are responsible for business modeling, including creating databases and tables, importing, and modifying data. Users access different databases and tables to retrieve data.

    In this scenario, administrators can be granted ADMIN or GRANT privileges. RDs can be granted CREATE, DROP, ALTER, LOAD, and SELECT permissions for any or specific databases and tables. Clients can be granted SELECT permissions for any or specific databases and tables. Additionally, different roles can be created to simplify the authorization process for multiple users.

  2. Scenario 2

    A cluster may contain multiple businesses, each potentially using one or more datasets. Each business needs to manage its users. In this scenario, an administrative user can create a user with DATABASE-level GRANT privileges for each database. This user can only authorize users for the specified database.

  3. Blacklist

    Doris itself does not support a blacklist, only a whitelist, but we can simulate a blacklist through certain means. Suppose a user named user@'192.%' is created, allowing users from 192.* to log in. If you want to prohibit a user from 192.168.10.1 from logging in, you can create another user cmy@'192.168.10.1' with a new password. Since 192.168.10.1 has higher priority than 192.%, the user from 192.168.10.1 will no longer be able to log in with the old password.