Row-Level & Object-Level Security | Guided by A Guide to Cloud

Data-level security

Simple explanation

Think of a hospital records system. A nurse on cardiology sees heart patient records (row-level). The billing team sees billing columns but not clinical notes (column-level). Nobody knows the drug trial table exists (object-level).

Row-Level Security (RLS)

RLS filters rows based on user identity using a security mapping table:

-- Role: RegionalAccess — filter on dim_store
[Region] IN
    SELECTCOLUMNS(
        FILTER(SecurityMapping, SecurityMapping[UserEmail] = USERPRINCIPALNAME()),
        "Region", SecurityMapping[Region]
    )

CLS vs OLS

CLS hides data; OLS hides the existence of data
Feature	Column-Level (CLS)	Object-Level (OLS)
Data visible?	No — returns blank/restricted	No — column/table hidden from metadata entirely
Column in field list?	Yes — users know it exists	No — users do not know it exists
Measures referencing it	Return blank for restricted users	FAIL for restricted users
Configuration	Tabular Editor / XMLA	Tabular Editor / XMLA

Question

What is RLS?

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Answer

Row-Level Security filters rows based on user identity. Uses USERPRINCIPALNAME() and a security mapping table. Same report, different data per user.

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Question

What is the difference between CLS and OLS?

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Answer

CLS hides column DATA but column still exists in metadata. OLS hides column/table from metadata entirely — users do not know it exists. OLS is stricter: measures referencing OLS objects fail.

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Knowledge Check

Dr. Sarah needs cardiology doctors to see only cardiology patients. How?

Question

What does the USERPRINCIPALNAME() function do in RLS?

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Answer

Returns the email address (UPN) of the current user querying the report. Used inside DAX filter expressions to dynamically match the logged-in user against a security mapping table, so each user sees only their permitted rows.

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Knowledge Check

Raj needs to hide a Salary column in a semantic model so non-HR users do not even know the column exists. Which security feature should he use?

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