ownCloud Roles

ownCloud supports eight user roles. These are:

The following information is not an in-depth guide, but more of a high-level overview of each type.

Anonymous

  • Is not a regular user.
  • Has access to specific content made available via public links. - Can be password-protected (optional, enforced, policy-enforced). - Can have an expiration date (optional, enforced, enforced dependent on password).
  • Has no personal space
  • Has no file ownership (ownership of uploaded/created files is directed to sharer).
  • Has no use of clients.
  • Quota is that of the sharer.
  • Permissions are those granted by the sharer for specific content, e.g., view-only, edit, and File Drop.
  • Can only use file and viewer apps, such as PDF Viewer and Collabora Online.

Guest

  • Is a regular user with restricted permissions, identified via e-mail address.
  • Has no personal space.
  • Has no file ownership (ownership of uploaded/created files is directed to sharer).
  • Has access to shared space. The permissions are granted by the sharer.
  • Is not bound to the inviting user.
    • Can log in as long as shares are available.
    • Becomes deactivated when no shares are left; this is the shared with guests filter.
    • Reactivated when a share is received.
    • Administrators will be able to automate user cleanup (“disabled for x days”).
  • Can use all clients.
  • Fully auditable in the enterprise edition.
  • Can be promoted to group administrator or administrator, but will still have no personal space.
  • Apps are specified by the admin (whitelist).

Note

The Shared with Guests Filter

This filter makes it easy for sharers to view and remove their shares with a guest, which also removes their responsibility for guests. When all of a guest’s shares are removed, the guest is then disabled and can no longer login.

Standard User

  • Is a regular user (from LDAP, ownCloud user backend, or another backend).
  • Has personal space. Permissions are granted by the administrator.
  • Shared space: Permissions as granted by sharer.
  • Apps: All enabled, might be restricted by group membership.

Federated User

  • Is not an internal user.
  • Can trust a federated system.
  • Has access to shared space through users on the considered ownCloud system.
  • Can share data with the considered system (accept-/rejectable).

ownCloud Group Administrator

  • Is a regular user, such as from LDAP, an ownCloud user backend, or another backend.
  • Can manage users in their groups, such as adding and removing them, and changing quota of users in the group.
  • Can add new users to their groups and can manage guests.
  • Can enable and disable users.
  • Can impersonate users in their groups.
  • Custom group creation may be restricted to group admins.

ownCloud Administrator

  • Is a regular user (from LDAP, ownCloud user backend, or another backend).
  • Can configure ownCloud features via the UI, such as sharing settings, app-specific configurations, and external storages for users.
  • Can manage users, such as adding and removing, enabling and disabling, quota and group management.
  • Can restrict app usage to groups, where applicable.
  • Configurable access to log files.
  • Mounting of external shares and local shares (of external file systems) is disabled by default.

System Administrator

  • Is not an ownCloud user.
  • Has access to ownCloud code (e.g., config.php and apps folders) and command-line tool (occ).
  • Configures and maintains the ownCloud environment (PHP, Webserver, DB, Storage, Redis, Firewall, Cron, and LDAP, etc.).
  • Maintains ownCloud, such as updates, backups, and installs extensions.
  • Can manage users and groups, such as via occ.
  • Has access to the master key when storage encryption is used.
  • Storage admin: Encryption at rest, which prevents the storage administrator from having access to data stored in ownCloud.
  • DB admin: Calendar/Contacts etc. DB entries not encrypted.

Auditor

  • Is not an ownCloud user.
  • Conducts usage and compliance audits in enterprise scenarios.
  • App logs (especially Auditlog) can be separated from ownCloud log. This separates the Auditor and Sysadmin roles. An audit.log file can be enabled, which the Sysadmin can’t access.
  • Best practice: parse separated log to an external analyzing tool.