DENY Database Principal Permissions (Transact-SQL)

**APPLIES TO:** ![yes](media/yes.png)SQL Server (starting with 2008) ![yes](media/yes.png)Azure SQL Database ![no](media/no.png)Azure SQL Data Warehouse ![no](media/no.png)Parallel Data Warehouse

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

Topic link icon 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

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 through SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2017 SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2017 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 through SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2017 SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2017 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 AdventureWorks2012 user Wanida to user RolandX.

USE AdventureWorks2012;  
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 AdventureWorks2012 role SammamishParking to database user JinghaoLiu. The CASCADE option is specified because user JinghaoLiu was granted VIEW DEFINITION permission WITH GRANT OPTION.

USE AdventureWorks2012;  
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 AdventureWorks2012 application role AccountsPayable17.

Applies to: SQL Server 2008 through SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2017 SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2017 SQL Database

USE AdventureWorks2012;  
DENY IMPERSONATE ON USER::HamithaL TO AccountsPayable17;  
GO