bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/security/use-indirect-permissions-for-elevated-access.md
Jesper Schulz-Wedde 9a4198eb28 Add [all] sentinel to bc-version; apply to version-agnostic knowledge
Most of the corpus — FindSet/SetLoadFields/CalcFields patterns, permission
sets, SingleInstance codeunits, DataClassification, IsolatedStorage,
transaction scope, SecretText — describes BC platform behaviour that is
identical across supported versions. The seed [26..28] range on every
file implied a version-specificity the content does not actually have,
and there was no way to express "applies to every version" in the
schema the way [w1] and [all] already do for countries and
application-area.

Extend the v1 schema with a universal sentinel for bc-version, parallel
to the sentinels already defined for the other dimensions:

  bc-version: [all]         # applies to every BC version

[all] is mutually exclusive with explicit versions. Range shorthand
([26..28]) and explicit lists ([26, 27, 28]) continue to work for files
genuinely tied to a version-gated API or deprecation.

Update read.md (field definition, matching semantics, partial-context
rule), write.md (default to [all], use ranges only with a concrete
reason), README.md (frontmatter example), and the CI validator. All
forty existing knowledge files and the three action skills convert to
[all]; none of the current content is version-gated. Validator passes.
2026-04-23 16:00:03 +02:00

1.6 KiB

bc-version domain keywords technologies countries application-area
all
security
indirect-permission
elevation
permissionset
al
w1
all

Use indirect permissions for elevated access

Seed article. Converted from an existing security-review prompt to bootstrap the BCQuality security corpus. Domain stewards should expand, restructure, and refine as needed.

Description

Indirect permissions (ri, ii, mi, di) let a procedure perform an operation against tabledata the caller does not have direct rights to, provided the caller is authorized to invoke the procedure. They are the supported mechanism for elevation: instead of widening every caller's direct rights to M or D, the sensitive operation lives in a codeunit that holds the indirect right and validates its callers.

Best Practice

Where a module exposes a controlled write or delete against a sensitive table, grant the codeunit (or the helper permission set it assumes) the indirect permission (mi, di) it requires, keep direct permissions minimal, and document why the elevation is justified. The helper MUST validate its inputs and the caller's identity before performing the elevated work.

See sample: use-indirect-permissions-for-elevated-access.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Granting direct M or D on a sensitive tabledata to every role that might invoke a helper, because authoring an indirect-permission codeunit was inconvenient. Every caller now has the elevated right for every code path, not just the one the helper implements.

See sample: use-indirect-permissions-for-elevated-access.bad.al.