Role-Based Access Control in Lnav

The log file holds secrets. Lnav’s Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) decides who gets to see them, change them, or lock them away.

RBAC in Lnav is not decoration. It’s a hard gate. Permissions map to roles, and roles map to identities. A user can read, write, or administer logs only if the role’s rules allow it. Everything else fails by design.

Lnav RBAC is built around clear role definitions. You typically start with default roles—Viewer, Editor, Admin—and can define custom ones for precise control. Each role links to a set of actions, such as viewing logs, filtering queries, exporting data, or changing configuration. By binding these roles to authenticated users, RBAC ensures that every access attempt is checked before it runs.

The configuration lives in Lnav’s settings. You assign roles in the user database or integrate with your existing identity provider via API. For federated setups, roles can sync automatically from LDAP or OAuth claims, keeping permissions consistent across environments.

Security in RBAC depends on strict permissions scoping. Give the minimum rights needed. If a role only queries logs, remove edit and export rights. If a role manages alert rules, limit access to sensitive logs. Lnav enforces these boundaries instantly—unprivileged actions fail without side effects, protecting both data integrity and compliance.

Audit logging in Lnav records every RBAC decision. You can trace when a user attempted an action, see what role they held, and confirm whether it succeeded. This feedback loop is vital for incident investigation and operational tuning.

Role changes take effect immediately. There’s no grace period for mistakes. If you drop an admin’s write permission, their session loses it at once. This makes RBAC a living control system—changes in policy flow into active sessions without downtime.

Properly configured, Lnav RBAC is a lightweight but strong perimeter. It reduces attack surfaces, enforces policy, and makes compliance audits faster. It’s more than controlling who logs in; it defines the limits of what’s possible inside Lnav.

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