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TWiki Access ControlRestricting read and write access to topics and webs, by Users and groups TWiki Access Control allows you restrict access to single topics and entire webs, by individual user and by user Groups. Access control, combined with TWikiUserAuthentication, lets you easily create and manage an extremely flexible, fine-grained privilege system. Tip: TWiki:TWiki.TWikiAccessControlSupplement on TWiki.org has additional documentation on access control.On this page:
An Important Control ConsiderationOpen, freeform editing is the essence of WikiCulture - what makes TWiki different and often more effective than other collaboration tools. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that decisions to restrict read or write access to a web or a topic are made with great care - the more restrictions, the less Wiki in the mix. Experience shows that unrestricted write access works very well because:
Permissions settings of the webs on this TWiki site<-- * Set ALLOWWEBVIEW = PauloGurgel, PatriciaMarinho -->| | | PauloGurgel, PatriciaMarinho | | PauloGurgel, PatriciaMarinho |
Authentication vs. Access ControlAuthentication: Identifies who a user is based on a login procedure. See TWikiUserAuthentication. Access control: Restrict access to content based on users and groups once a user is identified.Users and GroupsAccess control is based on the familiar concept of Users and Groups. Users are defined by their WikiNames. They can then be organized in unlimited combinations by inclusion in one or more user Groups. For convenience, Groups can also be included in other Groups.Managing UsersA user can create an account in TWikiRegistration. The following actions are performed:
Managing GroupsThe following describes the standard TWiki support for groups. Your local TWiki may have an alternate group mapping manager installed. Check with your TWiki administrator if you are in doubt. Groups are defined by group topics located in theMain web. To create a new group, visit TWikiGroups and enter the name of the new group ending in Group into the "new group" form field. This will create a new group topic with two important settings:
The Super Admin GroupA number of TWiki functions (for example, renaming webs) are only available to administrators. Administrators are simply users who belong to the SuperAdminGroup. This is a standard user group, the name of which is defined by {SuperAdminGroup} setting in configure. The default name of this group is theTWikiAdminGroup . The system administrator may have chosen a different name for this group if your local TWiki uses an alternate group mapping manager but for simplicity we will use the default name TWikiAdminGroup in the rest of this topic.
You can create new administrators simply by adding them to the TWikiAdminGroup topic. For example,
Restricting AccessYou can define who is allowed to read or write to a web or a topic. Note that some plugins may not respect access permissions.
Controlling access to a WebYou can define restrictions on who is allowed to view a TWiki web. You can restrict access to certain webs to selected Users and Groups, by:
ALLOWWEBVIEW set, this will also apply to the subweb. Also note that you will need to ensure that the parent web's FINALPREFERENCES does not include the access control settings listed above. Otherwise you will not be able override the parent web's access control settings in sub-webs.
Creation and renaming of sub-webs is controlled by the WEBCHANGE setting on the parent web (or ROOTCHANGE for root webs). Renaming is additionally restricted by the setting of WEBRENAME in the web itself.
Note: If you restrict access to the Main, make sure to add the TWikiRegistrationAgent so that users can register. Example:
Controlling access to a Topic
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< < | The setting to an empty has caused confusion and great debate and it has been decided that the empty setting syntax will be replaced by something which is easier to understand in the 4.2 version of TWiki. A method to upgrade will be provided. Please read the release notes carefully when you upgrade. | |||||||
> > | If the same setting is defined multiple times the last one overrides the previous. They are not OR'ed together. The setting to an empty has caused confusion and great debate and it has been decided that the empty setting syntax will be replaced by something which is easier to understand in a later version of TWiki. A method to upgrade will be provided. Please read the release notes carefully when you upgrade. | |||||||
See "How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settings" below for more on how ALLOW and DENY interacts.
Controlling access to AttachmentsAttachments are referred to directly, and are not normally indirected via TWiki scripts. This means that the above instructions for access control will not apply to attachments. It is possible that someone may inadvertently publicise a URL that they expected to be access-controlled. The easiest way to apply the same access control rules for attachments as apply to topics is to use the Apachemod_rewrite module, and configure your webserver to redirect accesses to attachments to the TWiki viewfile script. For example,
ScriptAlias /twiki/bin/ /filesystem/path/to/twiki/bin/ Alias /twiki/pub/ /filesystem/path/to/twiki/pub/ RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/+twiki/+pub/+TWiki/+.+ RewriteRule ^/+twiki/+pub/+([^/]+)/+((([^/]+)/+)+)(.+) /twiki/bin/viewfile/$1/$4?filename=$5 [L,PT]That way all the controls that apply to the topic also apply to attachments to the topic. Other types of webserver have similar support. Note: Images embedded in topics will load much slower since each image will be delivered by the viewfile script.
Controlling who can manage top-level websTop level webs are a special case, because they don't have a parent web with a WebPreferences. So there has to be a special control just for the root level.
ROOTCHANGE access to rename an existing top-level web. You just need WEBCHANGE in the web itself.
How TWiki evaluates ALLOW/DENY settingsWhen deciding whether to grant access, TWiki evaluates the following rules in order (read from the top of the list; if the logic arrives at PERMITTED or DENIED that applies immediately and no more rules are applied). You need to read the rules bearing in mind that VIEW, CHANGE and RENAME access may be granted/denied separately.
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> > | Access control and INCLUDEALLOWTOPICVIEW and ALLOWTOPICCHANGE only applies to the topic in which the settings are defined. If a topic A includes another topic B, topic A does not inherit the access rights of the included topic B. Examples: Topic A includes topic B
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Access Control quick recipesObfuscating WebsAnother way of hiding webs is to keep them hidden by not publishing the URL and by preventing theall webs search option from accessing obfuscated webs. Do so by enabling the NOSEARCHALL variable in WebPreferences:
Restrict Access to Whole TWiki SiteFor a firewalled TWiki, e.g. an intranet wiki or extranet wiki, you want to allow only invited people to access your TWiki. In this case, enable user authentication with ApacheLogin and lock down access to the wholetwiki/bin and twiki/pub directories to all but valid users. In the Apache .htaccess file or the appropriate .conf file, replace the <FilesMatch "(attach|edit|... section with this:
<FilesMatch ".*"> require valid-user </FilesMatch>If needed, you can further restrict access to selected webs with ALLOWWEBVIEW and other access control settings. Note: With this configuration, someone with access to the site needs to register new users. Authenticate all Webs and Restrict Selected WebsUse the following setup to authenticate users for topic viewing in all webs and to restrict access to selected webs. Requires TWikiUserAuthentication to be enabled.
Authenticate and Restrict Selected Webs OnlyUse the following setup to provide unrestricted viewing access to open webs, with authentication only on selected webs. Requires TWikiUserAuthentication to be enabled.
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< < | Tip: To hide access control settings from normal browser viewing, you can put them into the topic-local settings. You can access those settings via the "More" screen, as explained in TWikiVariables. | |||||||
> > | Tip: To hide access control settings from normal browser viewing, you can put them into the topic preference settings by clicking the link Edit topic preference settings under More topic actions menu. Preferences set in this manner are not visible in the topic text, but take effect nevertheless. Access control settings added as topic preference settings are stored in the topic meta data and they override settings defined in the topic text. | |||||||
Alternatively, place them in HTML comment markers, but this exposes the access setting during ordinary editing.
Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory, TWikiUserAuthentication, TWiki:TWiki.TWikiAccessControlSupplement -- Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.MikeMannix, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie |