REVOKE Database Permissions (Transact-SQL)

SQL Server 2008 Books Online (October 2009)

Updated: 26 February 2009

Revokes permissions granted and denied on a database.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ] <permission> [ ,...n ]  
    { TO | FROM } <database_principal> [ ,...n ] 
        [ CASCADE ]
    [ AS <database_principal> ]

<permission> ::=  
permission | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ]

<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 a database. For a list of the permissions, see the Remarks section later in this topic.

ALL: This option does not revoke all possible permissions. Revoking ALL is equivalent to revoking the following permissions: BACKUP DATABASE, BACKUP LOG, CREATE DATABASE, CREATE DEFAULT, CREATE FUNCTION, CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE RULE, CREATE TABLE, and CREATE VIEW.

PRIVILEGES: Included for ISO compliance. Does not change the behavior of ALL.

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.

Caution:
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

The statement will fail if CASCADE is not specified when you are revoking a permission to a principal that was granted that permission with the GRANT OPTION specified.

A database is a securable contained by the server that is its parent in the permissions hierarchy. The most specific and limited permissions that can be revoked on a database are listed in the following table, together with the more general permissions that include them by implication.

Database permission	Implied by database permission	Implied by server permission
ALTER	CONTROL	ALTER ANY DATABASE
ALTER ANY APPLICATION ROLE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY ASSEMBLY	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY ASYMMETRIC KEY	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY CERTIFICATE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY CONTRACT	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY DATABASE AUDIT	ALTER	ALTER ANY SERVER AUDIT
ALTER ANY DATABASE DDL TRIGGER	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY DATABASE EVENT NOTIFICATION	ALTER	ALTER ANY EVENT NOTIFICATION
ALTER ANY DATASPACE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY FULLTEXT CATALOG	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY MESSAGE TYPE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY REMOTE SERVICE BINDING	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY ROLE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY ROUTE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY SCHEMA	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY SERVICE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY SYMMETRIC KEY	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
ALTER ANY USER	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
AUTHENTICATE	CONTROL	AUTHENTICATE SERVER
BACKUP DATABASE	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
BACKUP LOG	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
CHECKPOINT	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
CONNECT	CONNECT REPLICATION	CONTROL SERVER
CONNECT REPLICATION	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
CONTROL	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE AGGREGATE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE ASSEMBLY	ALTER ANY ASSEMBLY	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE ASYMMETRIC KEY	ALTER ANY ASYMMETRIC KEY	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE CERTIFICATE	ALTER ANY CERTIFICATE	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE CONTRACT	ALTER ANY CONTRACT	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE DATABASE	CONTROL	CREATE ANY DATABASE
CREATE DATABASE DDL EVENT NOTIFICATION	ALTER ANY DATABASE EVENT NOTIFICATION	CREATE DDL EVENT NOTIFICATION
CREATE DEFAULT	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG	ALTER ANY FULLTEXT CATALOG	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE FUNCTION	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE MESSAGE TYPE	ALTER ANY MESSAGE TYPE	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE PROCEDURE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE QUEUE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE REMOTE SERVICE BINDING	ALTER ANY REMOTE SERVICE BINDING	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE ROLE	ALTER ANY ROLE	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE ROUTE	ALTER ANY ROUTE	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE RULE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE SCHEMA	ALTER ANY SCHEMA	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE SERVICE	ALTER ANY SERVICE	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY	ALTER ANY SYMMETRIC KEY	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE SYNONYM	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE TABLE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE TYPE	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE VIEW	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION	ALTER	CONTROL SERVER
DELETE	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
EXECUTE	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
INSERT	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
REFERENCES	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
SELECT	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
SHOWPLAN	CONTROL	ALTER TRACE
SUBSCRIBE QUERY NOTIFICATIONS	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
TAKE OWNERSHIP	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
UPDATE	CONTROL	CONTROL SERVER
VIEW DATABASE STATE	CONTROL	VIEW SERVER STATE
VIEW DEFINITION	CONTROL	VIEW ANY DEFINITION

Permissions

The principal that executes this statement (or the principal specified with the AS option) must have CONTROL permission on the database or a higher permission that implies CONTROL permission on the database.

If you are using the AS option, the specified principal must own the database.

Examples

A. Revoking permission to create certificates

The following example revokes CREATE CERTIFICATE permission on the AdventureWorks database from user MelanieK.

USE AdventureWorks;
REVOKE CREATE CERTIFICATE FROM MelanieK;
GO

B. Revoking REFERENCES permission from an application role

The following example revokes REFERENCES permission on the AdventureWorks database from application role AuditMonitor.

USE AdventureWorks;
REVOKE REFERENCES FROM AuditMonitor;
GO

C. Revoking VIEW DEFINITION with CASCADE

The following example revokes VIEW DEFINITION permission on the AdventureWorks database from user CarmineEs and from all principals to which CarmineEs has granted VIEW DEFINITION permission.

USE AdventureWorks;
REVOKE VIEW DEFINITION FROM CarmineEs CASCADE;
GO

Change History

Updated content
Added the ALTER ANY DATABASE AUDIT permission.

A. Revoking permission to create certificates

B. Revoking REFERENCES permission from an application role

C. Revoking VIEW DEFINITION with CASCADE

Reference

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