REVOKE Database Principal Permissions (Transact-SQL)

Revokes permissions granted or denied on a database user, database role, or application role.

Topic link iconTransact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ] permission [ ,...n ]  
    ON 
    {  [ USER :: database_user ]
       | [ ROLE :: database_role ]
       | [ APPLICATION ROLE :: application_role ]
    }
    { FROM | 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 revoked 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 revoked. The scope qualifier (::) is required.

  • ROLE ::database_role
    Specifies the class and name of the role on which the permission is being revoked. The scope qualifier (::) is required.

  • APPLICATION ROLE ::application_role
    Specifies the class and name of the application role 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.

    Warning

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

  • 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

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 revoked 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 revoked 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 revoked 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 grant any permission on any securable in the database.

Examples

A. Revoking CONTROL permission on a user from another user

The following example revokes CONTROL permission on AdventureWorks2008R2 user Wanida from user RolandX.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
REVOKE CONTROL ON USER::Wanida FROM RolandX;
GO

B. Revoking VIEW DEFINITION permission on a role from a user to which it was granted WITH GRANT OPTION

The following example revokes VIEW DEFINITION permission on AdventureWorks2008R2 role SammamishParking from database user JinghaoLiu. The CASCADE option is specified because the user JinghaoLiu was granted VIEW DEFINITION permission WITH GRANT OPTION.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
REVOKE VIEW DEFINITION ON ROLE::SammamishParking 
    FROM JinghaoLiu CASCADE;
GO

C. Revoking IMPERSONATE permission on a user from an application role

The following example revokes IMPERSONATE permission on the user HamithaL from AdventureWorks2008R2 application role AccountsPayable17.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
REVOKE IMPERSONATE ON USER::HamithaL FROM AccountsPayable17;
GO