DENY Database Principal Permissions (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance

Denies permissions granted on a database user, database role, or application role in SQL Server.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

DENY permission [ ,...n ]    
    ON   
    {  [ USER :: database_user ]  
     | [ ROLE :: database_role ]  
     | [ APPLICATION ROLE :: application_role ]  
    }  
    TO <database_principal> [ ,...n ]  
      [ CASCADE ]  
      [ AS <database_principal> ]  
  
<database_principal> ::=  
    Database_user   
  | Database_role   
  | Application_role   
  | Database_user_mapped_to_Windows_User   
  | Database_user_mapped_to_Windows_Group   
  | Database_user_mapped_to_certificate   
  | Database_user_mapped_to_asymmetric_key   
  | Database_user_with_no_login   

Note

To view Transact-SQL syntax for SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and earlier versions, see Previous versions documentation.

Arguments

permission
Specifies a permission that can be denied on the database principal. For a list of the permissions, see the Remarks section later in this topic.

USER ::database_user
Specifies the class and name of the user on which the permission is being denied. The scope qualifier (::) is required.

ROLE ::database_role
Specifies the class and name of the role on which the permission is being denied. The scope qualifier (::) is required.

APPLICATION ROLE ::application_role
Applies to: SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later, SQL Database.

Specifies the class and name of the application role on which the permission is being denied. The scope qualifier (::) is required.

CASCADE
Indicates that the permission being denied is also denied to other principals to which it has been granted by this principal.

AS <database_principal>
Specifies a principal from which the principal executing this query derives its right to revoke the permission.

Database_user
Specifies a database user.

Database_role
Specifies a database role.

Application_role
Applies to: SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later, SQL Database.

Specifies an application role.

Database_user_mapped_to_Windows_User
Specifies a database user mapped to a Windows user.

Database_user_mapped_to_Windows_Group
Specifies a database user mapped to a Windows group.

Database_user_mapped_to_certificate
Specifies a database user mapped to a certificate.

Database_user_mapped_to_asymmetric_key
Specifies a database user mapped to an asymmetric key.

Database_user_with_no_login
Specifies a database user with no corresponding server-level principal.

Remarks

Database User Permissions

A database user is a database-level securable contained by the database that is its parent in the permissions hierarchy. The most specific and limited permissions that can be denied on a database user are listed in the following table, together with the more general permissions that include them by implication.

Database user permission Implied by database user permission Implied by database permission
CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL
IMPERSONATE CONTROL CONTROL
ALTER CONTROL ALTER ANY USER
VIEW DEFINITION CONTROL VIEW DEFINITION

Database Role Permissions

A database role is a database-level securable contained by the database that is its parent in the permissions hierarchy. The most specific and limited permissions that can be denied on a database role are listed in the following table, together with the more general permissions that include them by implication.

Database role permission Implied by database role permission Implied by database permission
CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL
TAKE OWNERSHIP CONTROL CONTROL
ALTER CONTROL ALTER ANY ROLE
VIEW DEFINITION CONTROL VIEW DEFINITION

Application Role Permissions

An application role is a database-level securable contained by the database that is its parent in the permissions hierarchy. The most specific and limited permissions that can be denied on an application role are listed in the following table, together with the more general permissions that include them by implication.

Application role permission Implied by application role permission Implied by database permission
CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL
ALTER CONTROL ALTER ANY APPLICATION ROLE
VIEW DEFINITION CONTROL VIEW DEFINITION

Permissions

Requires CONTROL permission on the specified principal, or a higher permission that implies CONTROL permission.

Grantees of CONTROL permission on a database, such as members of the db_owner fixed database role, can deny any permission on any securable in the database.

Examples

A. Denying CONTROL permission on a user to another user

The following example denies CONTROL permission on the AdventureWorks2022 user Wanida to user RolandX.

USE AdventureWorks2022;  
DENY CONTROL ON USER::Wanida TO RolandX;  
GO  

B. Denying VIEW DEFINITION permission on a role to a user to which it was granted with GRANT OPTION

The following example denies VIEW DEFINITION permission on the AdventureWorks2022 role SammamishParking to database user JinghaoLiu. The CASCADE option is specified because user JinghaoLiu was granted VIEW DEFINITION permission WITH GRANT OPTION.

USE AdventureWorks2022;  
DENY VIEW DEFINITION ON ROLE::SammamishParking   
    TO JinghaoLiu CASCADE;  
GO  

C. Denying IMPERSONATE permission on a user to an application role

The following example denies IMPERSONATE permission on user HamithaL to the AdventureWorks2022 application role AccountsPayable17.

Applies to: SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later, SQL Database.

USE AdventureWorks2022;  
DENY IMPERSONATE ON USER::HamithaL TO AccountsPayable17;  
GO    

See Also

GRANT Database Principal Permissions (Transact-SQL)
REVOKE Database Principal Permissions (Transact-SQL)
sys.database_principals (Transact-SQL)
sys.database_permissions (Transact-SQL)
CREATE USER (Transact-SQL)
CREATE APPLICATION ROLE (Transact-SQL)
CREATE ROLE (Transact-SQL)
GRANT (Transact-SQL)
Permissions (Database Engine)
Principals (Database Engine)