Grant vs. Deny Permission Precedence

[James Roberts]

Which permission takes precedence at the Space Level in Confluence? Grant or Deny?

Example: UserA is in GroupA and GroupA has been granted Add Attachment privilege at the Space level. However, UserA has been denied the Add Attachment privilege as an individual at the Space level.

Will UserA be allowed to add attachments or will he not be able to add attachments?

[Thomas Schlegel · Accepted solution]

Hi James,

from Atlassian Documentation (https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Users+and+Groups):

Overlapping group and user permissions

When a user is assigned more than one permission, the most powerful permission will prevail.

Further explanation:

• A user may be assigned a permission specifically to their username. They may also be assigned a permission by belonging to a group, or even several groups.
• The user will then be able to perform all functions assigned to them.
• So if a user is allowed to do something over and above what the group can do, the user will be able to do it. And if the group is allowed to do something over and above the specific permissions granted to the user, the user will still be able to do it.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not really grant/deny in Atlassian products, it's more "deny, until allowed". Your user matches one rule that says "allow", so they can attach things. Specifically, their group says "allow", so they can do it. Doesn't matter about the individual settings.