Troubleshooting Access Control Lists (ACLs)/Permissions in AEM

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Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a powerful content management solution used by many organizations to manage their digital assets and web content. One crucial aspect of managing content in AEM is controlling access to resources using Access Control Lists (ACLs). However, troubleshooting ACL-related issues can be challenging, especially for users who are new to AEM. In this blog post, we’ll explore common ACL-related problems in AEM and provide practical troubleshooting tips to resolve them.

What are the various types of permissions?

On high level, permissions are divided into following categories as depicted by the Image.

Each of these permissions is a composition of more granular JCR permissions.

For example, the “Delete” permission consists of two JCR permissions:

  • jcr:removeNode: The privilege to remove a node.
  • jcr:removeChildNodes: The privilege to remove child nodes of a node.

Read:

Modify:

Create:

Delete:

Read ACL:

Edit ACL:

Replicate:

Thus, you might encounter projects that use define permissions via high-level (read, modify) or low-level (jcr:read, jcr:addChildNodes) etc.Typically, working with higher-level permissions is preferable due to their simplicity and ease of maintenance. However, there may be instances where dealing with lower-level permissions becomes necessary to meet specific requirements. Example: Allow users to reset password, we need to provide jcr:modifyProperties privilege on /home/groups. It is provided via granular access , while avoiing complete edit access on Groups.

Effective and Ineffective permissions.

Before we troubleshoot ACLS, we would first need to understand what an overall access on a node consists of.

When a user is a member of multiple groups with differing permissions on a specific node, the overall permissions are determined by various combinations. This complexity can arise from group inheritance or the user belonging to multiple groups. Here’s a breakdown:

A “Local Entry” indicates that permissions have been manually updated on a particular node, rather than being inherited from a parent node.

“Effective Permission” refers to permissions being applied according to the group permission configuration. For instance, if a group has an “allow” permission on a node, the user admin will display “allow” for users who are members of that group.

Conversely, “Ineffective Permission” occurs when permissions are not applied as per the group permission configuration. For example, if there are conflicting permissions on a node where one group has an “allow” permission and another has a “deny” permission, the user admin may display “allow” for the user who is a member of both groups. In this case, the effective permission is the “allow” from group A, and the ineffective permission is the “deny” from group B.

In useradmin, an asterisk (*) is used to denote effective-only scenarios, while both an asterisk (*) and an exclamation mark (!) indicate ineffective or effective + ineffective combinations.

Troubleshooting Tips and Techniques:

Here are some practical steps and techniques to troubleshoot and resolve ACL-related challenges effectively:

  1. Verify User Group Memberships: Ensure that users belong to the correct groups with appropriate permissions. Incorrect group memberships can lead to unexpected access issues.
  2. Inspect Resource ACLs: Use tools like Useradmin, Access Control Editor or Permissions UI to examine the ACLs applied directly to the resource and its parent nodes. This helps identify any misconfigurations or conflicts in permissions.
  3. Analyze Inheritance: Analyze the effective/ineffective permissions via Useradmin and identify potential conflicts that may arise from inherited permissions. Analyzing inheritance can provide insights into unexpected access behaviors.
  4. Utilize Test User: Create a test user with minimum groups. Gradully add more groups to understand where the issue lies.

By following these troubleshooting tips and techniques, AEM administrators, developers, and support teams can efficiently identify and resolve ACL-related issues, ensuring a secure and seamless user experience within the AEM platform.

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