Role-Based Access for Snowflake Data Warehouses

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To implement role-based access control (RBAC) for Snowflake data warehouses using Pulumi, we can use Pulumi's Snowflake provider to define roles and assign privileges to those roles within the Snowflake data platform.

You will first need to install the Snowflake Pulumi provider using the following command:

```bash
pip install pulumi_snowflake
```

After setting up the provider, you'll need to configure your Snowflake connection settings typically using the Pulumi configuration system. However, for the purposes of this example, we'll assume you have already set up your Snowflake credentials as environment variables or using Pulumi config.

The following program outlines the basic steps for creating a custom role, adding privileges to that role, and assigning the role to a user by creating `Role`, `RoleGrants`, and `User` resources.

Here's a sample Pulumi program written in Python to accomplish this:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_snowflake as snowflake

# Create a new custom role
custom_role = snowflake.Role("customRole",
    name="custom_role_name",
    # You can add additional arguments as needed,
    # such as a comment about the role
    comment="A custom role for accessing specific data warehouses"
)

# Grant the custom role access to a specific database
role_db_grant = snowflake.RoleGrants("customRoleDatabaseGrant",
    role_name=custom_role.name,
    # The database name to which we're granting access
    database_name="target_database",
    # Grants the role permission to access the database
    privilege="USAGE",
    # You can specify additional grants like `roles` or `schemas` as needed
)

# Assign the custom role to a particular user
user_role_assignment = snowflake.User("userRoleAssignment",
    name="user_name",
    # Assuming 'user_name' is an existing user,
    # assigns the custom role to the user
    roles=[custom_role.name.apply(lambda role_name: [role_name])],
    # Set additional user attributes if needed
    # like 'default_role', 'password', etc.
)

# Output the custom role name
pulumi.export("custom_role_name", custom_role.name)
# Output the user's details
pulumi.export("user_details", user_role_assignment)
```

Explanation:

- We first create a Snowflake role using the `Role` resource from the Snowflake provider for Pulumi. We pass in a name for the role and a comment describing the purpose of the role.

- Next, we grant the custom role usage privileges on a specific database through the `RoleGrants` resource. The privilege 'USAGE' allows the role to access the database but does not allow any operations on the database's content. Depending on your requirements, you may grant more privileges such as 'SELECT', 'MODIFY', etc.

- Now, we assign the custom role to a user. The user is created here with the `User` resource, and we assign the newly created role to this user by adding it to the roles list. We use `.apply()` to ensure that the role name is properly passed as a list to the `roles` argument since it expects a list of roles.

- Lastly, we export crucial details. Here, the role name is exported for reference in other stacks or for auditing purposes, and we export the user details for similar reasons.

Make sure to replace `custom_role_name`, `target_database`, and `user_name` with actual values that match your Snowflake data warehouse setup. Ensure you have the necessary permissions in Snowflake to create roles and modify user assignments.

Please keep in mind that role-based access control in Snowflake, as in any data warehouse solution, needs to be carefully managed to ensure data security and compliance with any data governance policies your organization may have. The process of granting and revoking privileges should follow the principle of least privilege, providing only the access necessary for users to perform their duties.