Role-based Access control

This document forms the specifications for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) which was introduced as part of the Unleash v4 release.

Core principles

Unleash has two levels in its hierarchy of resources:

1. Root resources - Everything that lives across the entire Unleash instance. Examples of this include:
   • activation strategies
   • context field definitions
   • integration configurations
   • applications
   • users
2. Project resources - Resources which are only available under a project. Today this is only “feature toggles” (but we expect more resources to live under a project in the future). A feature toggle will belong to only one single project. In Unleash-Open source there exists only a single project, the “default” project, while Unleash Enterprise supports multiple projects.

Unleash v4 allows you control access to both root resources and individual project resources.

Predefined roles

Unleash comes with a set of built-in predefined roles that you can use. The root roles are available to all Unleash users, while the project-based roles are only available to Pro and Enterprise users. The below table lists the roles, what they do, and what plans they are available in. Additionally, Enterprise users can create their own custom root roles and custom project roles.

When you add a new user, you can assign them one of the root roles listed below.

Role	Scope	Description	Availability
Admin	Root	Users with the root admin role have superuser access to Unleash and can perform any operation within the Unleash platform.	All versions
Editor	Root	Users with the root editor role have access to most features in Unleash, but can not manage users and roles in the root scope. Editors will be added as project owners when creating projects and get superuser rights within the context of these projects. Users with the editor role will also get access to most permissions on the default project by default.	All versions
Viewer	Root	Users with the root viewer role can only read root resources in Unleash. Viewers can be added to specific projects as project members. Users with the viewer role may not view API tokens.	All versions
Owner	Project	Users with the project owner role have full control over the project, and can add and manage other users within the project context, manage feature toggles within the project, and control advanced project features like archiving and deleting the project.	Pro and Enterprise
Member	Project	Users with the project member role are allowed to view, create, and update feature toggles within a project, but have limited permissions in regards to managing the project's user access and can not archive or delete the project.	Pro and Enterprise

Custom Root Roles

availability

Custom root roles were introduced in Unleash 5.4 and are only available in Unleash Enterprise.

Custom root roles let you define your own root roles with a specific set of root permissions. The roles can then be assigned to entities (users, service accounts and groups) at the root level. This allows you to control access to resources in a more precise, fine-grained way. For a step-by-step walkthrough of how to create and assign custom root roles, refer to how to create and assign custom root roles.

Each custom root role consists of:

• a name (required)
• a role description (required)
• a set of root permissions (required)

Root permissions

You can assign the following root permissions:

Integration permissions

Permission Name	Description
Create integrations	Lets the user create integrations.
Update integrations	Lets the user update integrations.
Delete integrations	Lets the user delete integrations.

API token permissions

Permission Name	Description
Read frontend API tokens	Lets the user read frontend API tokens.
Create frontend API tokens	Lets the user create frontend API tokens.
Update frontend API tokens	Lets the user update frontend API tokens.
Delete frontend API tokens	Lets the user delete frontend API tokens.
Read client API tokens	Lets the user read client API tokens.
Create client API tokens	Lets the user create client API tokens.
Update client API tokens	Lets the user update client API tokens.
Delete client API tokens	Lets the user delete client API tokens.

Application permissions

Permission Name	Description
Update applications	Lets the user update applications.

Context field permissions

Permission Name	Description
Create context fields	Lets the user create context fields.
Update context fields	Lets the user update context fields.
Delete context fields	Lets the user delete context fields.

Project permissions

Permission Name	Description
Create projects	Lets the user create projects.

Role permissions

Permission Name	Description
Read roles	Lets the user read roles.

Segment permissions

Permission Name	Description
Create segments	Lets the user create segments.
Edit segments	Lets the user edit segments.
Delete segments	Lets the user delete segments.

Strategy permissions

Permission Name	Description
Create strategies	Lets the user create strategies.
Update strategies	Lets the user update strategies.
Delete strategies	Lets the user delete strategies.

Tag type permissions

Permission Name	Description
Update tag types	Lets the user update tag types.
Delete tag types	Lets the user delete tag types.

Custom Project Roles

availability

Custom project roles were introduced in Unleash 4.6 and are only available in Unleash Enterprise.

Custom project roles let you define your own project roles with a specific set of project permissions down to the environment level. The roles can then be assigned to users in specific projects. All users have viewer access to all projects and resources, but must be assigned a project role to be allowed to edit a project's resources. For a step-by-step walkthrough of how to create and assign custom project roles, see how to create and assign custom project roles.

Each custom project role consists of:

• a name (required)
• a role description (required)
• a set of project and / or environment permissions (required)

Project permissions

You can assign the following project permissions. The permissions will be valid across all of the project's environments.

Permission	Description
update the project	Lets the user update project settings, such as enabling/disabling environments, add users, etc.
user access read	Read access to Project User Access (included in "update the project" permission)
user access write	Write access to Project User Access (included in "update the project" permission)
default strategy read	Read access to default strategy configuration (included in "update the project" permission)
default strategy write	Write access to default strategy configuration (included in "update the project" permission)
change request read	Read access to change request configuration (included in "update the project" permission)
change request write	Write access to change request configuration (included in "update the project" permission)
settings read	Read access to other project settings (included in "update the project" permission)
settings write	Write access to other project settings (included in "update the project" permission)
delete the project	Lets the user delete the project.
create feature toggles within the project	Lets the user create feature toggles within the project and create variants for said toggle. Note that they cannot assign strategies to toggles without having the create activation strategy permission for the corresponding environment.
update feature toggles within the project	Lets the user update feature toggle descriptions; mark toggles as stale / not stale; add, update, and remove toggle tags; and update toggle variants within the project.
delete feature toggles within the project	Lets the user archive feature toggles within the project.
change feature toggle project	Lets the user move toggles to other projects they have access to.
create/edit variants	Lets the user create and edit variants within the project. (Deprecated with v4.21 in favor of environment-specific permissions for working with variants1.)

Environment permissions

You can assign the following permissions on a per-environment level within the project:

Permission	Description
create activation strategies	Lets the user assign feature toggle activation strategies within the environment.
update activation strategies	Lets the user update feature toggle activation strategies within the environment.
delete activation strategies	Lets the user delete feature toggle activation strategies within the environment.
enable/disable toggles	Lets the user enable and disable toggles within the environment.
update variants	Lets the user create, edit and remove variants within the environment.
approve a change request	Lets the user approve change requests in the environment.
apply a change request	Lets the user apply change requests in the environment.
skip change requests	Lets the user ignore change request requirements. This applies only when using the API directly; when using the admin UI, users with this permission will still need to go through the normal change request flow. You can find more details in the section on circumventing change requests.

Multiple Project Roles

availability

Multiple project roles is an enterprise feature available from Unleash 5.6 onwards.

Multiple project roles allow you to assign multiple project roles to a user or group within a project. By doing so, you can effectively merge the permissions associated with each role, resulting in a comprehensive set of permissions for the user or group in question. This ensures that individuals or teams have all the access they require to complete their tasks, as the system will automatically grant the most permissive rights from the combination of assigned roles.

This multi-role assignment feature can be particularly beneficial in complex projects with dynamic teams where a user or group needs to wear multiple hats. For example, a team member could serve as both a developer and a quality assurance tester. By combining roles, you simplify the access management process, eliminating the need to create a new, custom role that encapsulates the needed permissions.

User Groups

availability

User groups are available to Unleash Enterprise users since Unleash 4.14. Root role groups are planned to be released in Unleash 5.1.

User groups allow you to assign roles to a group of users within a project, rather than to a user directly. This allows you to manage your user permissions more easily when there's lots of users in the system. For a guide on how to create and manage user groups see how to create and manage user groups.

A user group consists of the following:

• a name (required)
• a description (optional)
• a list of users (required)
• a list of SSO groups to sync from (optional)
• a root role associated with the group (optional) (only available in Unleash 5.1 and later)

Groups do nothing on their own. They must either be given a root role directly or a role on a project to assign permissions.

Groups that do not have a root role need to be assigned a role on a project to be useful. You can assign both predefined roles and custom project roles to groups.

Any user that is a member of a group with a root role will inherit that root role's permissions on the root level.

While a user can only have one role in a given project, a user may belong to multiple groups, and each of those groups may be given a role on a project. In the case where a given user is given permissions through more than one group, the user will inherit most permissive permissions of all their groups in that project.

User Group SSO Integration

availability

User group syncing is planned to be released in Unleash 4.18 and will be available for Enterprise customers.

User groups also support integration with your Single Sign-On (SSO) provider. This allows you to automatically assign users to groups when they log in through SSO. Check out how to set up group SSO sync for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Users that have been added to a group through your SSO provider will be automatically removed next time they log in if they've been removed from the SSO group. Users that have been manually added to the group will not be affected.

To enable group sync, you'll need to set two fields in your SSO provider configuration options:

• enable group syncing:

  Turns on group syncing. This is disabled by default.

• group field JSON path

  A JSON path that should point to the groups field in your token response. This should match the exact field returned by the provider. For example, if your token looks like this:

  {
  
    "iss": "https://some-url.com",
    "azp": "1234987819200.apps.some-url.com",
    "aud": "1234987819200.apps.some-url.com",
    "sub": "10769150350006150715113082367",
    "at_hash": "HK6E_P6Dh8Y93mRNtsDB1Q",
    "hd": "example.com",
    "email": "jsmith@example.com",
    "email_verified": "true",
    "groups": ["test-group", "test-group-2"], //the field where groups are specified
    "iat": 1353601026,
    "exp": 1353604926,
    "nonce": "0394852-3190485-2490358"
  }

  You need to set the "Group Field JSON path" to "groups".

Once you've enabled group syncing and set an appropriate path, you'll need to add the SSO group names to the Unleash group. This can be done by navigating to the Unleash group you want to enable sync for and adding the SSO group names to the "SSO group ID/name" property.

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1. The project-level permission is still required for the create/overwrite variants (PUT) and update variants (PATCH) API endpoints, but it is not used for anything within the admin UI. The API endpoints have been superseded by the create/overwrite environment variants (PUT) and update environment variants (PATCH) endpoints, respectively.↩