Understanding Permission in Confluence

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Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.

Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Levels of Permissions in Confluence 

Confluence has 3 levels of permission. This page will discuss them.

Level 1: Global Permission

This is the most basic permission that allows users to be able to login successfully to Confluence. It is often referred to as the "Can Use" permission.

This level of permission is being managed by Site Administrators in the Global Permission page. It's accessed by: 

  1. Choose the cog icon , then choose General Configuration

  2. Choose Global Permissions in the left-hand panel. 

Users that have the can use permission, and users that belong to groups that have the can use permission will be able to log in to Confluence

In this example, only "admin", and other users that belong to the groups "confluence-users" or "confluence-administrators" can log in to Confluence

(info) Good to know:

  • Users with this permission count towards the number of users allowed by your license

What happens if users do not have Global permission tried to log in?

They will see this Not Permitted error message.

How to fix this

Go to Global Permission Administration page and make sure that these users have can-use permission, or belongs to a group that has a can-use permission.

More detailed information about Global permission, administration permissions can be found here: Global Permissions Overview

Level 2: Space Permissions

Confluence contents or pages will be inside separate Spaces. Each space in Confluence has its own set of permissions, which can be granted and revoked by a Space Administrator. Other users will need to be granted Space Permission to be able to browse content in a space.

This level of permission is being managed in the Space Permission. It's accessed by:


  1. Space tools from the bottom of the sidebar

  2. Choose Permissions

In this example, only "admin" and "user1", and the users that belong to the group "group1" are able to view the pages in this space. (That is unless there is a further page restriction in place which will be covered in the next section)

What happens if users do not have Space permission tried to access pages in that space?

They will see this Page Not Found page:


How to fix this


Go to Space Permission page and make sure that these users have View Space permission, or belongs to a group that has a View Space permission.


More detailed information about Space permission, administration permissions can be found here: Space Permissions Overview

Level 3: Page Restrictions

Page restrictions allow you to control who can view and/or edit individual pages in a space. To add or remove page restrictions, you'll need to have permission to edit the page and 'Restrict' or 'Admin' permission in the space.

To restrict who can view or edit a page or blog post:

  1. Chose the Restrictions  icon at the top of the page.
  2. Choose whether you just want to limit only who can Edit, or who can View and / or Edit. 
  3. Enter users or groups then click Add to add them to the list. 
    If you chose Viewing and Editing restricted you can further specify for each person or group whether they can edit or just view the page. 
  4. Apply the restrictions.

 

In this example, only "admin" and "user1" can access this page

What happens if users do not have page permission tried to access the pages in that space?

They will see this page that says "You don't have permission to view this page"

How to fix this

Ask someone that has 'Restrict' or 'Admin' permission in the space to fix the page permission

More detailed information about Page permissions can be found here: Page Restrictions


DescriptionUnderstanding the messages that Confluence give when users have specific insufficient permission
ProductConfluence

What happens if permissions are conflicting with multiple groups OR groups & individual user permissions?

Let's understand this with the following 2 scenarios. 

  1. What happens when a user is a member of more than one group that has conflicting permissions in a space? 
  2. What happens if the user is a member of a group with one set of permissions and is added as an individual user in Space Tools > Permissions with a conflicting set of perms?

In any scenario, Confluence accumulates permissions from the different groups or individual users for the user who connected. And based on that it will provide access to the content. For example, let's say TestUser1 has View permission in the groups ( Test-group & Confluence -user ) and he added into the individual users and provided the pages ( Add & delete ) permission. When this user logged into the Confluence, his permission from group permissions & individual permissions will be accumulated and he can just view all contents and adds and deletes the pages.


Last modified on Dec 27, 2022

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