The Importance of User Roles and Permissions for Site Security

Rethink your roles

When discussing site security we often use words like "attacker", "malicious user" or "untrusted" to define site visitors who may be intent on abusing resources, stealing, or altering data. Within Drupal, visitors can achieve these goals using the permissions granted to their roles. This is the key component. We have to think of visitors in terms of what roles they have and what permissions we've granted those roles. Then instead of just thinking about trusted vs. untrusted users, we are thinking about trusted vs. untrusted roles.

On your site, which roles are trusted and which are untrusted? What permissions have you given to those roles? What permissions have you granted to the Anonymous role and thus to anonymous visitors? As you build and add features to your site you are also widening the available points for attack. If you have allowed users to create accounts without administrator approval you should also consider what permissions you've granted the Authenticated role. Can authenticated users create content or post comments without approval?

This article is now part of the Knowledge Base of Drupal security articles on Drupal Scout.

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