Access Management Policy with Sidecars

On a sidecar-connected repository, ALTR enforces an Access Management Policy in real time: the sidecar parses each incoming query, identifies the database objects it accesses, and cancels queries the policy doesn’t allow. For the how-to that creates this policy type, see Restrict Access to Repository Objects.

How Cancellation Works

The sidecar cancels a query that violates policy before it reaches the database and returns a database-native error that reads as though the object doesn’t exist, carrying no indication that a policy caused the cancellation. Cancellation applies to the whole query — an Access Management Policy on a sidecar-connected repository either allows a query or cancels it in full; it doesn’t mask values or return partial results. Canceled queries are still recorded in ALTR’s audit trail.

Note

If a canceled query runs inside a PostgreSQL transaction, the sidecar issues a ROLLBACK so the transaction doesn’t enter an error state that requires manual cleanup.

Note

Policy changes are defined in ALTR and propagate to the sidecar asynchronously. Expect a short delay between saving a policy and its enforcement at the sidecar.

Query Parsing

ALTR relies on query parsing to identify accessed objects; support for all query types is not guaranteed. By default, a query the sidecar can’t parse is canceled, the same as a query that violates policy; an administrator can change this behavior with the Allow unsupported queries setting when registering the sidecar.

Qualify object names in your queries — for example, database.schema.table rather than a bare table reference — so the sidecar can correctly identify the object a query accesses.