roleassignments

Role assignments refer to the mappings that connect a principal, such as a user, group, service account, or application, to a role within a defined scope. A role is a collection of permissions that permit specific actions on resources. An assignment grants those permissions by associating a principal with a role at a particular scope, such as a project, resource group, database, or individual resource. Scopes can be nested, allowing permissions to propagate to sub-scopes unless overridden, and assignments can be revoked or modified to adjust access.

As a core mechanism of role-based access control (RBAC), role assignments support least-privilege access by ensuring users have only the permissions needed for their tasks and by enabling separation of duties. The lifecycle includes creating assignments, updating roles or principals, auditing changes, and removing obsolete bindings. Auditing features typically record who granted access, when, and what permissions were affected.

Applications across platforms share the same principle. In cloud environments, a role assignment binds an identity to a built-in or custom role at a scope like a subscription, resource group, or resource. In Kubernetes, control is achieved through Role, ClusterRole, and bindings to subjects. In databases and operating systems, privileges or groups are assigned to users, forming role-based access structures. Role assignments therefore provide a scalable, auditable, and flexible approach to controlling access in complex systems. In documentation, the concept is expressed as role assignments, but some APIs use the single token roleassignments.