Implementing Role-Based Access Control in SQL for Enhanced Security - Need Advice
I need some guidance on I'm working through a tutorial and I'm trying to debug Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy... During development of a web application that manages sensitive user data, I've been tasked with implementing role-based access control (RBAC) at the database level in PostgreSQL. The goal is to ensure that only users with specific roles can access or modify certain tables. To achieve this, I've set up a basic roles table and a users table linked by a foreign key. Here's a simplified version of my current schema: ```sql CREATE TABLE roles ( role_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, role_name VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL ); CREATE TABLE users ( user_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, username VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL, password_hash VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, role_id INT REFERENCES roles(role_id) ); ``` I’m using a JWT authentication system for user sessions. Upon successful login, I retrieve the user's role from the database. The challenge arises when I try to enforce permissions for certain tables, such as a sensitive data table. I initially thought of using views to restrict access based on roles, but I’m unsure how to dynamically filter data based on the role of the logged-in user without exposing unnecessary data. Here’s a snippet of my current approach using a view: ```sql CREATE VIEW secure_data AS SELECT * FROM sensitive_data WHERE EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM users u JOIN roles r ON u.role_id = r.role_id WHERE u.user_id = current_user_id() AND r.role_name = 'admin' ); ``` While this setup works for admins, I'm struggling to extend this for users with different roles. The view doesn't handle complex logic, such as allowing 'manager' roles to see a subset of the data. Additionally, I've read about implementing policies in PostgreSQL using Row-Level Security (RLS). After enabling RLS on the `sensitive_data` table, my initial attempt at creating a policy looked like this: ```sql CREATE POLICY select_policy ON sensitive_data FOR SELECT USING (EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM users u JOIN roles r ON u.role_id = r.role_id WHERE u.user_id = current_user_id() AND (r.role_name = 'admin' OR (r.role_name = 'manager' AND sensitive_data.department_id = u.department_id)) )); ``` However, this is where things got tricky. I'm unsure if the policy is properly implemented or if the logic covers all user role scenarios. Any advice on best practices for structuring these policies or suggestions for alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated. I want to ensure that my implementation adheres to security best practices while maintaining application performance. What am I doing wrong? I'm working on a service that needs to handle this. I'm using Sql 3.10 in this project. Has anyone dealt with something similar? I'm working in a Windows 10 environment. Has anyone else encountered this? For reference, this is a production service. Any suggestions would be helpful.