Identity-Aware Row-Level Security with OpenID Connect

The query finished running, but the data wasn’t safe. Rows bled into places they shouldn’t. You needed identity-aware enforcement at the database layer, not a generic permission check upstream. That’s where OpenID Connect (OIDC) and Row-Level Security meet.

OpenID Connect is the protocol that verifies who’s at the door. Row-Level Security (RLS) decides what they can see once inside. Together, they provide user-scoped data control directly in the datastore, eliminating fragile filtering in API code.

With OIDC, authentication is delegated to a trusted provider. The user logs in, the provider issues a JSON Web Token (JWT). This token contains claims — user ID, roles, groups. RLS policies in the database can inspect these claims to decide access, cutting application complexity and reducing attack surface.

A common pattern is to parse the OIDC sub claim (the subject identifier) into a session variable on connect. In Postgres, for example, you can set:

SET app.user_id = 'oidc-sub-value';

RLS policies then filter rows using app.user_id. This eliminates ambiguity between application sessions and database permissions.

Security improves because rules live in one place: the database itself. No duplication across services. No forgotten filters. If JWT handling is secure, and policies are correct, users see only the rows tied to their identity, even if they query the database directly.

Implementation steps:

1. Configure OIDC authentication in your app or gateway.
2. Pass JWT claims into the database connection context.
3. Define RLS policies using these variables.
4. Test with multiple identities to confirm isolation.

OIDC + RLS scales better than manually coded filters. It is protocol-backed authentication paired with native database enforcement. This approach is deterministic, maintainable, and hard to bypass.

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