Privileges

Understanding Privileges

Privileges define actions which can be performed against specific functionality. Privileges can be only be assigned to roles.

To access Privileges go to Security in the Administration menu, where it’s listed as a sub-section. An extensive list of privileges is already built in the repository manager and is partially depicted in Figure: “Partial List of Security Privileges”. This feature allows you to inspect existing privileges and create custom privileges as required.  Users will need nx-privilege or nx-all privileges to access this page.

Figure: Partial List of Security Privileges

Privilege Names

Names are unique identifiers. Privileges included by default are prefixed with nx- . Privileges that are migrated from Nexus Repository 2 will be named as they were in Repository 2. Privileges that you create yourself can only consist of letters, digits, underscores(_), hyphens(-), and dots(.). A privilege name cannot start with an underscore or dot(.).

For custom privileges, it is encouraged that you use a simple convention to namespace your privileges. For example using a simple acronym representing your organization name. Example Organization Inc. could prefix their privilege names with eoi- for example.

Privilege Types

The privilege list displays an icon for the privilege Type as the first column in the list.

Privilege Permissions

Privilege permissions are represented by a colon separated list of text segments, where each segment can be one of:

• a single text value
• a comma separated list of text values
• an asterisk character * to represent all values in that segment

The internal segment matching algorithm uses Apache Shiro wildcard permissions.

Privilege Actions

Actions are functions allowing an explicit behavior the privilege can perform with the associated function.

The Actions to choose from are add, browse, create, delete, edit, read, update, and *. You must assign a single or combination of comma-delimited actions when creating new privileges. The privilege type to which you apply any of these Actions will perform the action’s implied behavior. Consider how each action behaves when applied to a privilege type:

add

This action allows privileges to add repository content or scripts.

browse

This action allows privileges to view the contents of associated repositories. Unlike read, privilege types with browse can only view and administrate repository contents from UI.

create

This action allows privileges to create applicable configurations within the repository manager. Since a read permission is required to view a configuration, this action is associated with most existing create privileges.

delete

This action allows privileges to delete repository manager configurations, repository contents, and scripts. A read action is generally associated with delete actions, so the actor can view these configurations to remove them.

edit

This action sllows privileges to modify scripts, repository content and settings.

read

This action allows privileges to view various configuration lists and scripts. Without read, any associated action will permit a privilege to see these lists but not its contents. The read action also allows privileges to utilize tools that can look at content from the command line.

update

This action allows privileges to update repository manager configurations. Most existing privileges with update include read actions. Therefore, if creating custom privileges with  update, the actor should consider adding read to the privilege in order to view repository manager configuration updates.

*

This action is a wildcard giving you the ability to group all actions together.

Creating a Privilege

Click the Create privilege button to view a list of privilege types, as seen in Figure: “Choosing Privilege Types”.

Figure: Choosing Privilege Types

After selecting a type, fill in the required fields and save the privilege. The privilege can be found listed among the default privileges on the main Privileges screen. You can use the Filter input box to find a specific privilege.

Example: Creating an Application Privilege

In the following example, an Application privilege type is created:

Figure: Creating an Application Privilege

The form provides Name, Description, Domain, and Actions. In Figure: “Creating an Application Privilege” the form is completed for a privilege that allows read access to the LDAP administration. If assigned this privilege, a user is able to view LDAP administration configuration but not edit it, create a new LDAP configuration, nor delete any existing LDAP configurations.

Example: Creating a Repository View Privilege

In another example, a Repository View privilege type is created:

Figure: Creating a Repository View Privilege

The form provides Name, Description, Format, Repository, and Actions. In Figure: “Creating a Repository View Privilege” the form is completed for a privilege granting sufficient access to publish images to a specific hosted repository. A user with this privilege can view and read the contents of the repository as well as publish new images to it, but not delete images.

Privileges and Group Repositories

You can also assign privileges to users, and any assigned role, so they can have read-only access to a specific group repository. By default, these permissions will only allow users to read contents via the assigned group.

Additionally, users cannot access the contents of a group repository via members inside the group unless the member repository is assigned the same privileges as the group.

When a user is given a privilege to a group repository, then that user will also have that privilege to all transitive members of that group repository only when their request is directed to the group repository. Direct requests to indvidual member repositories will only work if the user is given explicit permission to the individual repository.

Group administrators also must be granted permissions to both the group and all its members in order to manage the group configuration.