Restrict access to attachments for a viewer of a page?

[Jakub Kierszka]

If a user has viewing permissions on a page, can they be restricted from viewing attachments on that page? I know that they can be prevented from Adding or Deleting attachments, but can they have view permissions for select attachments, or another way, do Attachments have restrictions?

[Mirek]

Hi Jakub,

Partialy. Directly you cannot say that this and this attachement will not be visible to the user that is having access to the page. Rule is simple: If you have access to the page you will have access to the attachments.

So in that case since you are able to view attachements of a specific page and confluence allows to use attachments from different pages then simply create a page which will not be visible to the user (restricted), attach files you want to restrict and on a public page use attachments macro (or any other preview) this will restrict access only to specific people, groups that are set up in the restrictions.

Overall I recommend to have one single place for attachemts instead of adding them to the pages. If you are using new Confluence then there is a Blueprint for that called - File List.

I hope that will help.

Best Regards,

Mirek

[Bruno Kranjčić]

Hi Mirek. In Jira, restriction can be set on comments. Why can't we use same restrictions with attachments?

[Deleted user]

Does not work.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Works fine here.

[Deleted user]

NO, you can't control attachment access rights by the pages they are displayed on (e.g. by labeling), it is only controlled by the pages they are uploaded in.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, that's what I said, it works fine for me, as Mirek describes.

I think you need to explain what you mean by "does not work"

[Deleted user]

So Mirek's answer has offered no explanation on the original question how to restrict access to ATTACHMENTS on a page. Do YOU have an answer, Nic?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Only what Mirek stated - "Rule is simple: If you have access to the page you will have access to the attachments".  That's working fine for me.

[Bill]

That may work for you, but doesn't work in many other use cases.

For example, attaching requirements, we want anyone with visibility to that page to see. Attaching source code, we want to secure and limit who can see the attachment.

[Sattesh M]

Hey @Bill,
If the goal is to limit the visibility of an attachment, may I suggest to first upload the attachment to another page, and limit the page's permission over there.

Then, in the page we want everyone to access, add a link to the restricted page with the attachment.

This way, everyone can see the main page, and any attachments that needs to be "restricted" can still be accessible to the users from that page, albeit not directly.

Cheers,
Sattesh

[Dario Braun]

@Sattesh M 
But if a user has no permission to view a page, he is also unable to access the attachments on that page via links on another (public) page - right?

[Mark Smith]

I'm wondering if it can be done with using different screens for different users.

You could have a screen for one user type in both the create/view mode that has attachments and other set of screens for stakeholders (or whomever) for create/view modes that don't SEE attachments.

M