[jira] [Created] (CASSANDRA-16910) DROP permission behavior does not match documentation

["James Brown (Jira)" <ji...@apache.org>]

James Brown created CASSANDRA-16910:
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             Summary: DROP permission behavior does not match documentation
                 Key: CASSANDRA-16910
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-16910
             Project: Cassandra
          Issue Type: Bug
            Reporter: James Brown


There seems to be a mismatch between the documentation and reality with respect to the DROP permission.

Specifically, the matrix in [the documentation|https://cassandra.apache.org/doc/4.0/cassandra/cql/cql_singlefile.html#permissions] says that you can only {{DROP KEYSPACE}} if you have the {{DROP}} permission on {{ALL KEYSPACES}}; however, in testing, it appears that you can drop a keyspace if you merely have the {{DROP}} permission on that keyspace itself.

I believe this is a documentation error; for example, having {{ALTER}} permission on a keyspace is documented to let a role alter the keyspace itself in addition to altering tables within it. I don't particularly like this behavior and would prefer to have a way to grant roles the ability to alter/drop/create all objects within a keyspace without altering the keyspace itself.

Demo on a stock cassandra.yaml with the only changes being setting {{authenticator}} to {{PasswordAuthenticator}} and {{authorizer}} to {{CassandraAuthorizer}}:

{code}
$ ./bin/cqlsh -u cassandra -p cassandra
Connected to Bug Report Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042
[cqlsh 6.0.0 | Cassandra 4.0.0 | CQL spec 3.4.5 | Native protocol v5]
Use HELP for help.
cassandra@cqlsh> CREATE KEYSPACE demo_keyspace WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1};
cassandra@cqlsh> CREATE ROLE nonsuper WITH PASSWORD='nonsuper' AND LOGIN=true;
cassandra@cqlsh> GRANT DROP on KEYSPACE demo_keyspace TO nonsuper;
cassandra@cqlsh> 

 $ ./bin/cqlsh -u nonsuper -p nonsuper
Connected to Bug Report Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042
[cqlsh 6.0.0 | Cassandra 4.0.0 | CQL spec 3.4.5 | Native protocol v5]
Use HELP for help.
nonsuper@cqlsh> DROP KEYSPACE demo_keyspace;
nonsuper@cqlsh> CREATE KEYSPACE foo WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1};
Unauthorized: Error from server: code=2100 [Unauthorized] message="User nonsuper has no CREATE permission on <all keyspaces> or any of its parents"
nonsuper@cqlsh> DROP KEYSPACE foo;
Unauthorized: Error from server: code=2100 [Unauthorized] message="User nonsuper has no DROP permission on <keyspace foo> or any of its parents"
nonsuper@cqlsh>
{code}

Given the documented state that {{DROP KEYSPACE}} requires the {{DROP}} permission on {{ALL KEYSPACES}}, I would expect the cal to {{DROP KEYSPACE demo_keyspace}} to fail with a 2100 error.

Two things that seem like action item to me:

* The documentation should be updated to indicate that having the {{DROP}} permission on a keyspace allows you to {{DROP KEYSPACE}} and {{DROP TABLE in <keyspace>}}
* It sure would be swell if one could do something like {{GRANT DROP ON ALL TABLES IN KEYSPACE <ks> TO <role>}} in order to avoid this whole issue (the way we can already grant on {{ALL FUNCTIONS IN KEYSPACE <ks>}})...



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