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Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

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Ramu Kodemala on 03 Mar 2015 07:53:46

The general requirement is that visualizations (Power View, SSRS etc...) must not circumvent existing policies, or introduce yet another set of security policies on top of those already implemented at the source.

* For example, a visualization of sales data needs to reflect the policy that account managers can only read sales data for their region.
* For performance reasons, this is enforced at the source by injecting predicates into the query based on the end users identity. If identities for end users are not passed down the process chain into the data layer, it leaves us little option but to publish individual reports for every region, which results in an explosion of complexity and numbers of reports, or move the whole model to BISM and manage the policy in yet another place (namely the BISM model).

Impact
blocking migration to SPO/BI Sites. At least 412 Site Collections with more than 600 Power Views. Impacting Adoption or migration for majority of BPUs - e.g. Finance, LCA, HR, etc

Administrator on 16 Aug 2020 02:15:30

Hey all! We've continued to make progress here, so I wanted to update this thread with our current capabilities for maintaining security on dashboards/reports. As always, all of this information can be found in our Row-Level Security (RLS)documentation: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-admin-rls/ > If you have set up RLS in Analysis Services, Power BI will send the signed-in user's credentials to Analysis Services, and respect the RLS rules set up on the on-premises model. > Separately, you can set up RLS in Power BI for data sources that you import or connect to via DirectQuery. This process starts in PBI Desktop, where you define roles, and write DAX to constrain what data these roles can see. As part of this process, can you use the UserPrincipalName () DAX function to get the current signed in user's UPN (e.g. joe@contoso.com). Then, once you publish to service, you can assign users to these roles. Does the above meet your requirements? Please let us know via comments or e-mail. Those of you who requested that the identity of the signed in Power BI user be pass through to Azure SQL, SQL DB, DWH, etc.: we hear you - that is under consideration. Thanks, -Sirui

Comments (143)
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5aa733ba 03b2-4990-87f7-ac895695540d on 16 Aug 2020 03:53:08

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

Why was this not fully developed in advance of the deployment of "Analyze in Excel"? Seems like a gaping security hole has been created by allowing users access to source level data without a good method of restricting access for some but not all, especially if primary distribution means are via publication to group workspaces where RLS currently does not work.

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403b0bdf d73f-493a-9c50-c2c1183572c9 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:55

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

I wanted to apply Current user filter to the Power BI report , Is it possible ?

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f0bd2e15 3b86-42d8-8064-f44115eb2d29 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:51

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

Any update on this?

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68041850 7751-40b9-941c-f06be446757a on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:50

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

Is this being considered? Hoping for an update as this is mission critical for us. Won't be pursuing Power BI without it.

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657b42bc 7caa-4e9f-b82d-d042df895c62 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:47

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

This is definitely going the right direction. At least in the preview version we're able to add members to roles from our own organization. Will there be possibility to add members to roles also outside my own organization? That would be great addition to this!

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408295f3 4d7f-4110-9b30-9926c34e4298 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:45

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

Great work on RLS, but will we be able to dynamically filter data based on logged on user. i.e. set up a role with a large group of user in and then use a DAX statement using Username () or something like to filter data. Although username in PBI desktop returns AD account in Power BI service its a GUID string and most posts say not to use this. Noticed this suggestion that username () returns and effective name, which if done would solve the issue. https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/10312119-power-bi-service-return-effective-user-name-for-us . This way we can provide personal BI data to large groups of staff without having to create lots of individual roles.

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92b01233 f908-4926-aa72-178e27243fa5 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:44

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

We are unable to sync Roles and Membership from Azure AD
We have 800+ site collections in our organization. Each site has one or more Site Managers. We intend to build a Site Manager Dashboard to help them monitor and manage site usage. The idea is to exploit the RLS feature so that each Site Manager is able to view the Dashboard data for his site only. The Site Managers can be constantly added or removed across sites. We tried using the new Roles Feature within PowerBI, so that each role maps to one site, and the Site Managers are added as members into those Roles. The challenge that we are facing is ensuring the Roles-Members mapping stays up-to-date in real-time (ideally). So, for instance when a person is provided Manager access on a site in Sharepoint, then he automatically gets membership into the corresponding Role in PowerBI. Is there some API exposed by PowerBI using which we could run a script when a new manager is added/removed for a site? Can anybody suggest a better solution? We are aware that Roles in PowerBI allow Active Directory Groups to be added, but defining AD Groups for each of our 800+ sites sounds like a maintenance nightmare. Is the PowerBI team considering any feature/API to help manage such a situation? We strongly believe that the scenario is NOT unique to us and will be faced by any big enterprise deploying PowerBI with Sharepoint.

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e5081565 1ae5-4bcd-9d84-1fed81517315 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:43

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

I have gone through a Link :: http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/feature/Put-row-level-security-to-work-in-Azure-SQL-databases

Is this a feasible solution for access control.

If the org. use Azure as there Data Source.

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cdb695bc ba15-4c19-9627-33f5a188dc57 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:43

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

Without being able to pull data based on user, this product while being interesting is totally useless.

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ee1ae318 e49c-4c6b-9d3d-b9b4345bea72 on 16 Aug 2020 03:52:42

RE: Security - Ability to maintain source security for reports published on BI Sites

Come on Microsoft, community is awaiting this feature long time