[IMPALA-6479] Update DESCRIBE statement to respect column level privileges

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: Impala 3.0, Impala 2.13.0
• Component/s: Frontend
• Epic Color: ghx-label-3
• Assignee: Adam Holley
• Reporter: Adam Holley
• Created: 05/Feb/18 19:07
• Updated: 03/Feb/19 23:54
• Resolved: 03/Apr/18 21:44

Description

Currently if a user is granted select on a subset of columns on a table, the DESCRIBE command will show them all columns, and the DESCRIBE FORMATTED/EXTENDED is not allowed.

This change would update the DESCRIBE command that if a user has select on a subset of columns, it will only show the data from the columns the user has access to.  For DESCRIBE FORMATTED/EXTENDED, if a user has some column access, but not all columns, the Location, and View * Text would be removed from the additional metadata.

The purpose of this change is to increase consumability by allowing tools that allow users to browse data, such a for creating reports, to present only columns they have access to.  There is also a security aspect to this fix by not exposing additional data.  Other statements such a SHOW COLUMN STATS, will be handled by a separate Jira to be opened.

 

Sub-Tasks

• Impala 3.0 Doc: Update DESCRIBE statement to respect column level privileges: Closed