REVOKE Symmetric Key Permissions (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

Revokes permissions granted and denied on a symmetric key.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ] permission [ ,...n ]    
    ON SYMMETRIC KEY :: symmetric_key_name   
        { TO | FROM } <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   

Arguments

permission
Specifies a permission that can be revoked on a symmetric key. For a list of the permissions, see the Remarks section later in this topic.

ON SYMMETRIC KEY :: asymmetric_key_name
Specifies the symmetric key on which the permission is being revoked. The scope qualifier (::) is required.

GRANT OPTION
Indicates that the right to grant the specified permission to other principals will be revoked. The permission itself will not be revoked.

Important

If the principal has the specified permission without the GRANT option, the permission itself will be revoked.

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

Caution

A cascaded revocation of a permission granted WITH GRANT OPTION will revoke both GRANT and DENY of that permission.

{ TO | FROM } <database_principal>
Specifies the principal from which the permission is being revoked.

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
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

Information about symmetric keys is visible in the sys.symmetric_keys catalog view.

The statement will fail if CASCADE is not specified when revoking a permission from a principal that was granted that permission with GRANT OPTION specified.

A symmetric key 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 granted on a symmetric key are listed in the following table, together with the more general permissions that include them by implication.

Symmetric Key permission	Implied by symmetric key permission	Implied by database permission
ALTER	CONTROL	ALTER ANY SYMMETRIC KEY
CONTROL	CONTROL	CONTROL
REFERENCES	CONTROL	REFERENCES
TAKE OWNERSHIP	CONTROL	CONTROL
VIEW DEFINITION	CONTROL	VIEW DEFINITION

Permissions

Requires CONTROL permission on the symmetric key or ALTER ANY SYMMETRIC KEY permission on the database. If you use the AS option, the specified principal must own the symmetric key.

Examples

The following example revokes ALTER permission on the symmetric key SamInventory42 from the user HamidS and from other principals to which HamidS has granted ALTER permission.

USE AdventureWorks2022;  
REVOKE ALTER ON SYMMETRIC KEY::SamInventory42 TO HamidS CASCADE;  
GO  

See Also

sys.symmetric_keys (Transact-SQL)
GRANT Symmetric Key Permissions (Transact-SQL)
DENY Symmetric Key Permissions (Transact-SQL)
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY (Transact-SQL)
Permissions (Database Engine)
Principals (Database Engine)
Encryption Hierarchy