ACL SETUSER

Create an ACL user with the specified rules or modify the rules of an existing user.

Manipulate Valkey ACL users interactively. If the username does not exist, the command creates the username without any privilege. It then reads from left to right all the rules provided as successive arguments, setting the user ACL rules as specified. If the user already exists, the provided ACL rules are simply applied in addition to the rules already set. For example:

ACL SETUSER virginia on allkeys +set

The above command creates a user called virginia who is active(the on rule), can access any key (allkeys rule), and can call the set command (+set rule). Then, you can use another ACL SETUSER call to modify the user rules:

ACL SETUSER virginia +get

The above rule applies the new rule to the user virginia, so other than SET, the user virginia can now also use the GET command.

ACL rules can also be grouped into multiple distinct sets of rules, called selectors. Selectors are added by wrapping the rules in parentheses and providing them just like any other rule. In order to execute a command, either the root permissions (rules defined outside of parenthesis) or any of the selectors (rules defined inside parenthesis) must match the given command. For example:

ACL SETUSER virginia on +GET allkeys (+SET ~app1*)

This sets a user with two sets of permissions, one defined on the user and one defined with a selector. The root user permissions only allow executing the get command, but can be executed on any keys. The selector then grants a secondary set of permissions: access to the SET command to be executed on any key that starts with app1. Using multiple selectors allows you to grant permissions that are different depending on what keys are being accessed.

When we want to be sure to define a user from scratch, without caring if it had previously defined rules associated, we can use the special rule reset as first rule, in order to flush all the other existing rules:

ACL SETUSER antirez reset [... other rules ...]

After resetting a user, its ACL rules revert to the default: inactive, passwordless, can't execute any command nor access any key or channel:

127.0.0.1:6379> ACL SETUSER antirez reset
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> ACL LIST
1) "user antirez off -@all"

ACL rules are either words like "on", "off", "reset", "allkeys", or are special rules that start with a special character, and are followed by another string (without any space in between), like "+SET".

The following documentation is a reference manual about the capabilities of this command, however our ACL tutorial may be a more gentle introduction to how the ACL system works in general.

ACL rules

Valkey ACL rules are split into two categories: rules that define command permissions or command rules, and rules that define the user state or user management rules. This is a list of all the supported Valkey ACL rules:

Command rules

• ~<pattern>: Adds the specified key pattern (glob style pattern, like in the KEYS command), to the list of key patterns accessible by the user. This grants both read and write permissions to keys that match the pattern. You can add multiple key patterns to the same user. Example: ~objects:*
• %R~<pattern>: Adds the specified read key pattern. This behaves similar to the regular key pattern but only grants permission to read from keys that match the given pattern. See key permissions for more information.
• %W~<pattern>: Adds the specified write key pattern. This behaves similar to the regular key pattern but only grants permission to write to keys that match the given pattern. See key permissions for more information.
• %RW~<pattern>: Alias for ~<pattern>.
• allkeys: Alias for ~*, it allows the user to access all the keys.
• resetkeys: Removes all the key patterns from the list of key patterns the user can access.
• &<pattern>: Adds the specified glob style pattern to the list of Pub/Sub channel patterns accessible by the user. You can add multiple channel patterns to the same user. Example: &chatroom:*
• allchannels: Alias for &*, it allows the user to access all Pub/Sub channels.
• resetchannels: Removes all channel patterns from the list of Pub/Sub channel patterns the user can access.
• +<command>: Adds the command to the list of commands the user can call. Can be used with | for allowing subcommands (e.g "+config|get").
• +@<category>: Adds all the commands in the specified category to the list of commands the user is able to execute. Example: +@string (adds all the string commands). For a list of categories, check the ACL CAT command.
• +<command>|first-arg: Allows a specific first argument of an otherwise disabled command. It is only supported on commands with no sub-commands, and is not allowed as negative form like -SELECT|1, only additive starting with "+". This feature is deprecated and may be removed in the future.
• allcommands: Alias of +@all. Adds all the commands there are in the server, including future commands loaded via module, to be executed by this user.
• -<command>: Remove the command to the list of commands the user can call. It can be used with | for blocking subcommands (e.g., "-config|set").
• -@<category>: Like +@<category> but removes all the commands in the category instead of adding them.
• nocommands: Alias for -@all. Removes all the commands, and the user is no longer able to execute anything.

User management rules

• on: Set the user as active, it will be possible to authenticate as this user using AUTH <username> <password>.
• off: Set user as not active, it will be impossible to log as this user. Please note that if a user gets disabled (set to off) after there are connections already authenticated with such a user, the connections will continue to work as expected. To also kill the old connections you can use CLIENT KILL with the user option. An alternative is to delete the user with ACL DELUSER, that will result in all the connections authenticated as the deleted user to be disconnected.
• nopass: The user is set as a no password user. It means that it will be possible to authenticate as such user with any password. By default, the default special user is set as "nopass". The nopass rule will also reset all the configured passwords for the user.
• >password: Adds the specified clear text password as a hashed password in the list of the users passwords. Every user can have many active passwords, so that password rotation will be simpler. The specified password is not stored as clear text inside the server. Example: >mypassword.
• #<hashedpassword>: Adds the specified hashed password to the list of user passwords. A hashed password is hashed with SHA256 and translated into a hexadecimal string. Example: #c3ab8ff13720e8ad9047dd39466b3c8974e592c2fa383d4a3960714caef0c4f2.
• <password: Like >password but removes the password instead of adding it.
• !<hashedpassword>: Like #<hashedpassword> but removes the password instead of adding it.
• (<rule list>): Creates a new selector to match rules against. Selectors are evaluated after the user permissions, and are evaluated according to the order they are defined. If a command matches either the user permissions or any selector, it is allowed. See selectors for more information.
• clearselectors: Deletes all of the selectors attached to the user.
• reset: Removes any capability from the user. They are set to off, without passwords, unable to execute any command, unable to access any key.

Examples

127.0.0.1:6379> ACL SETUSER alan allkeys +@string +@set -SADD >alanpassword
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> ACL SETUSER antirez heeyyyy
(error) ERR Error in ACL SETUSER modifier 'heeyyyy': Syntax error

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