CREATE POLICY(7) PostgreSQL 15.7 Documentation CREATE POLICY(7)
NAME
CREATE_POLICY - define a new row-level security policy for a table
SYNOPSIS
CREATE POLICY name ON table_name
[ AS { PERMISSIVE | RESTRICTIVE } ]
[ FOR { ALL | SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE } ]
[ TO { role_name | PUBLIC | CURRENT_ROLE | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER } [, ...] ]
[ USING ( using_expression ) ]
[ WITH CHECK ( check_expression ) ]
DESCRIPTION
The CREATE POLICY command defines a new row-level security policy for a
table. Note that row-level security must be enabled on the table (using
ALTER TABLE ... ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY) in order for created
policies to be applied.
A policy grants the permission to select, insert, update, or delete
rows that match the relevant policy expression. Existing table rows are
checked against the expression specified in USING, while new rows that
would be created via INSERT or UPDATE are checked against the
expression specified in WITH CHECK. When a USING expression returns
true for a given row then that row is visible to the user, while if
false or null is returned then the row is not visible. When a WITH
CHECK expression returns true for a row then that row is inserted or
updated, while if false or null is returned then an error occurs.
For INSERT, UPDATE, and MERGE statements, WITH CHECK expressions are
enforced after BEFORE triggers are fired, and before any actual data
modifications are made. Thus a BEFORE ROW trigger may modify the data
to be inserted, affecting the result of the security policy check.
WITH CHECK expressions are enforced before any other constraints.
Policy names are per-table. Therefore, one policy name can be used for
many different tables and have a definition for each table which is
appropriate to that table.
Policies can be applied for specific commands or for specific roles.
The default for newly created policies is that they apply for all
commands and roles, unless otherwise specified. Multiple policies may
apply to a single command; see below for more details. Table 287
summarizes how the different types of policy apply to specific
commands.
For policies that can have both USING and WITH CHECK expressions (ALL
and UPDATE), if no WITH CHECK expression is defined, then the USING
expression will be used both to determine which rows are visible
(normal USING case) and which new rows will be allowed to be added
(WITH CHECK case).
If row-level security is enabled for a table, but no applicable
policies exist, a “default deny” policy is assumed, so that no rows
will be visible or updatable.
PARAMETERS
name
The name of the policy to be created. This must be distinct from
the name of any other policy for the table.
table_name
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table the policy
applies to.
PERMISSIVE
Specify that the policy is to be created as a permissive policy.
All permissive policies which are applicable to a given query will
be combined together using the Boolean “OR” operator. By creating
permissive policies, administrators can add to the set of records
which can be accessed. Policies are permissive by default.
RESTRICTIVE
Specify that the policy is to be created as a restrictive policy.
All restrictive policies which are applicable to a given query will
be combined together using the Boolean “AND” operator. By creating
restrictive policies, administrators can reduce the set of records
which can be accessed as all restrictive policies must be passed
for each record.
Note that there needs to be at least one permissive policy to grant
access to records before restrictive policies can be usefully used
to reduce that access. If only restrictive policies exist, then no
records will be accessible. When a mix of permissive and
restrictive policies are present, a record is only accessible if at
least one of the permissive policies passes, in addition to all the
restrictive policies.
command
The command to which the policy applies. Valid options are ALL,
SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE. ALL is the default. See below
for specifics regarding how these are applied.
role_name
The role(s) to which the policy is to be applied. The default is
PUBLIC, which will apply the policy to all roles.
using_expression
Any SQL conditional expression (returning boolean). The conditional
expression cannot contain any aggregate or window functions. This
expression will be added to queries that refer to the table if
row-level security is enabled. Rows for which the expression
returns true will be visible. Any rows for which the expression
returns false or null will not be visible to the user (in a
SELECT), and will not be available for modification (in an UPDATE
or DELETE). Such rows are silently suppressed; no error is
reported.
check_expression
Any SQL conditional expression (returning boolean). The conditional
expression cannot contain any aggregate or window functions. This
expression will be used in INSERT and UPDATE queries against the
table if row-level security is enabled. Only rows for which the
expression evaluates to true will be allowed. An error will be
thrown if the expression evaluates to false or null for any of the
records inserted or any of the records that result from the update.
Note that the check_expression is evaluated against the proposed
new contents of the row, not the original contents.
Per-Command Policies
ALL
Using ALL for a policy means that it will apply to all commands,
regardless of the type of command. If an ALL policy exists and more
specific policies exist, then both the ALL policy and the more
specific policy (or policies) will be applied. Additionally, ALL
policies will be applied to both the selection side of a query and
the modification side, using the USING expression for both cases if
only a USING expression has been defined.
As an example, if an UPDATE is issued, then the ALL policy will be
applicable both to what the UPDATE will be able to select as rows
to be updated (applying the USING expression), and to the resulting
updated rows, to check if they are permitted to be added to the
table (applying the WITH CHECK expression, if defined, and the
USING expression otherwise). If an INSERT or UPDATE command
attempts to add rows to the table that do not pass the ALL policy's
WITH CHECK expression, the entire command will be aborted.
SELECT
Using SELECT for a policy means that it will apply to SELECT
queries and whenever SELECT permissions are required on the
relation the policy is defined for. The result is that only those
records from the relation that pass the SELECT policy will be
returned during a SELECT query, and that queries that require
SELECT permissions, such as UPDATE, will also only see those
records that are allowed by the SELECT policy. A SELECT policy
cannot have a WITH CHECK expression, as it only applies in cases
where records are being retrieved from the relation.
INSERT
Using INSERT for a policy means that it will apply to INSERT
commands and MERGE commands that contain INSERT actions. Rows being
inserted that do not pass this policy will result in a policy
violation error, and the entire INSERT command will be aborted. An
INSERT policy cannot have a USING expression, as it only applies in
cases where records are being added to the relation.
Note that INSERT with ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE checks INSERT policies'
WITH CHECK expressions only for rows appended to the relation by
the INSERT path.
UPDATE
Using UPDATE for a policy means that it will apply to UPDATE,
SELECT FOR UPDATE and SELECT FOR SHARE commands, as well as
auxiliary ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE clauses of INSERT commands. MERGE
commands containing UPDATE actions are affected as well. Since
UPDATE involves pulling an existing record and replacing it with a
new modified record, UPDATE policies accept both a USING expression
and a WITH CHECK expression. The USING expression determines which
records the UPDATE command will see to operate against, while the
WITH CHECK expression defines which modified rows are allowed to be
stored back into the relation.
Any rows whose updated values do not pass the WITH CHECK expression
will cause an error, and the entire command will be aborted. If
only a USING clause is specified, then that clause will be used for
both USING and WITH CHECK cases.
Typically an UPDATE command also needs to read data from columns in
the relation being updated (e.g., in a WHERE clause or a RETURNING
clause, or in an expression on the right hand side of the SET
clause). In this case, SELECT rights are also required on the
relation being updated, and the appropriate SELECT or ALL policies
will be applied in addition to the UPDATE policies. Thus the user
must have access to the row(s) being updated through a SELECT or
ALL policy in addition to being granted permission to update the
row(s) via an UPDATE or ALL policy.
When an INSERT command has an auxiliary ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE
clause, if the UPDATE path is taken, the row to be updated is first
checked against the USING expressions of any UPDATE policies, and
then the new updated row is checked against the WITH CHECK
expressions. Note, however, that unlike a standalone UPDATE
command, if the existing row does not pass the USING expressions,
an error will be thrown (the UPDATE path will never be silently
avoided).
DELETE
Using DELETE for a policy means that it will apply to DELETE
commands. Only rows that pass this policy will be seen by a DELETE
command. There can be rows that are visible through a SELECT that
are not available for deletion, if they do not pass the USING
expression for the DELETE policy.
In most cases a DELETE command also needs to read data from columns
in the relation that it is deleting from (e.g., in a WHERE clause
or a RETURNING clause). In this case, SELECT rights are also
required on the relation, and the appropriate SELECT or ALL
policies will be applied in addition to the DELETE policies. Thus
the user must have access to the row(s) being deleted through a
SELECT or ALL policy in addition to being granted permission to
delete the row(s) via a DELETE or ALL policy.
A DELETE policy cannot have a WITH CHECK expression, as it only
applies in cases where records are being deleted from the relation,
so that there is no new row to check.
Table 287. Policies Applied by Command Type
┌─────────────┬─────────────┬────────────┬─────────────────────────┬────────────┐
│ │ SELECT/ALL │ INSERT/ALL │ UPDATE/ALL policy │ DELETE/ALL │
│ │ policy │ policy │ │ policy │
│Command ├─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┬────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ USING │ WITH CHECK │ USING │ WITH CHECK │ USING │
│ │ expression │ expression │ expression │ expression │ expression │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│SELECT │ Existing │ — │ — │ — │ — │
│ │ row │ │ │ │ │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│SELECT FOR │ Existing │ — │ Existing │ — │ — │
│UPDATE/SHARE │ row │ │ row │ │ │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│INSERT / │ — │ New row │ — │ — │ — │
│MERGE ... │ │ │ │ │ │
│THEN INSERT │ │ │ │ │ │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│INSERT ... │ New row [a] │ New row │ — │ — │ — │
│RETURNING │ │ │ │ │ │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│UPDATE / │ Existing & │ — │ Existing │ New row │ — │
│MERGE ... │ new rows │ │ row │ │ │
│THEN UPDATE │ [a] │ │ │ │ │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│DELETE │ Existing │ — │ — │ — │ Existing │
│ │ row [a] │ │ │ │ row │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│ON CONFLICT │ Existing & │ — │ Existing │ New row │ — │
│DO UPDATE │ new rows │ │ row │ │ │
├─────────────┴─────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┤
│---- │
│[a] If read access is required to the existing or new row (for │
│example, a WHERE or RETURNING clause that refers to columns from │
│the relation). │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Application of Multiple Policies
When multiple policies of different command types apply to the same
command (for example, SELECT and UPDATE policies applied to an UPDATE
command), then the user must have both types of permissions (for
example, permission to select rows from the relation as well as
permission to update them). Thus the expressions for one type of policy
are combined with the expressions for the other type of policy using
the AND operator.
When multiple policies of the same command type apply to the same
command, then there must be at least one PERMISSIVE policy granting
access to the relation, and all of the RESTRICTIVE policies must pass.
Thus all the PERMISSIVE policy expressions are combined using OR, all
the RESTRICTIVE policy expressions are combined using AND, and the
results are combined using AND. If there are no PERMISSIVE policies,
then access is denied.
Note that, for the purposes of combining multiple policies, ALL
policies are treated as having the same type as whichever other type of
policy is being applied.
For example, in an UPDATE command requiring both SELECT and UPDATE
permissions, if there are multiple applicable policies of each type,
they will be combined as follows:
expression from RESTRICTIVE SELECT/ALL policy 1
AND
expression from RESTRICTIVE SELECT/ALL policy 2
AND
...
AND
(
expression from PERMISSIVE SELECT/ALL policy 1
OR
expression from PERMISSIVE SELECT/ALL policy 2
OR
...
)
AND
expression from RESTRICTIVE UPDATE/ALL policy 1
AND
expression from RESTRICTIVE UPDATE/ALL policy 2
AND
...
AND
(
expression from PERMISSIVE UPDATE/ALL policy 1
OR
expression from PERMISSIVE UPDATE/ALL policy 2
OR
...
)
NOTES
You must be the owner of a table to create or change policies for it.
While policies will be applied for explicit queries against tables in
the database, they are not applied when the system is performing
internal referential integrity checks or validating constraints. This
means there are indirect ways to determine that a given value exists.
An example of this is attempting to insert a duplicate value into a
column that is a primary key or has a unique constraint. If the insert
fails then the user can infer that the value already exists. (This
example assumes that the user is permitted by policy to insert records
which they are not allowed to see.) Another example is where a user is
allowed to insert into a table which references another, otherwise
hidden table. Existence can be determined by the user inserting values
into the referencing table, where success would indicate that the value
exists in the referenced table. These issues can be addressed by
carefully crafting policies to prevent users from being able to insert,
delete, or update records at all which might possibly indicate a value
they are not otherwise able to see, or by using generated values (e.g.,
surrogate keys) instead of keys with external meanings.
Generally, the system will enforce filter conditions imposed using
security policies prior to qualifications that appear in user queries,
in order to prevent inadvertent exposure of the protected data to
user-defined functions which might not be trustworthy. However,
functions and operators marked by the system (or the system
administrator) as LEAKPROOF may be evaluated before policy expressions,
as they are assumed to be trustworthy.
Since policy expressions are added to the user's query directly, they
will be run with the rights of the user running the overall query.
Therefore, users who are using a given policy must be able to access
any tables or functions referenced in the expression or they will
simply receive a permission denied error when attempting to query the
table that has row-level security enabled. This does not change how
views work, however. As with normal queries and views, permission
checks and policies for the tables which are referenced by a view will
use the view owner's rights and any policies which apply to the view
owner, except if the view is defined using the security_invoker option
(see CREATE VIEW).
No separate policy exists for MERGE. Instead, the policies defined for
SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are applied while executing MERGE,
depending on the actions that are performed.
Additional discussion and practical examples can be found in
Section 5.8.
COMPATIBILITY
CREATE POLICY is a PostgreSQL extension.
SEE ALSO
ALTER POLICY (ALTER_POLICY(7)), DROP POLICY (DROP_POLICY(7)), ALTER
TABLE (ALTER_TABLE(7))
PostgreSQL 15.7 2024 CREATE POLICY(7)
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