Filtering on user context

Amazon Kendra enables you to filter a query response to remove documents from a user's search results based on their user name and group membership. You can filter search results by user token, user ID, or user attribute. Amazon Kendra can map users to their groups.

Filtering by user token

When a document is indexed into Amazon Kendra, a corresponding access control list (ACL) is ingested. The ACL specifies which user names and group names are allowed or denied access to the document. Documents without an ACL are public documents.

When you query the documents, you want to ensure the correct ACL is applied. For example, you can use an Open ID token. It uses a JSON format. When you issue a query, Amazon Kendra extracts and validates the token. Amazon Kendra pulls the user and group information and runs the query. All of the documents the user has access to including public documents are returned.

You provide the user token in the UserContext object and pass this in the Query.

The following shows how to include a user token.

response = kendra.query(
    QueryText = query,
    IndexId = index,
    UserToken = {
        Token = "token"
    })

You can map users to groups. When you use user-context filtering, it is not required to include all of the groups that a user belongs to when you issue the query. The PutPrincipalMapping operation allows you to map users to their groups. If you do not want to use the PutPrincipalMapping operation, you must provide the user name and all the groups the user belongs to when you issue a query. You can also fetch access levels of groups and users in your AWS Single Sign-On identity source by using the UserGroupResolutionConfiguration structure.

Filtering by user ID

When you query the index, you use the user and group name IDs to specify the user and group information.

You can also filter data sources by the user's group access.

Specifying a data source is useful if a group is tied to multiple data sources, but you only want the group to access documents of a certain data source. For example, the groups "Research", "Engineering", and "Sales and Marketing" are all tied to the company's documents stored in the data sources Confluence and Salesforce. However, "Sales and Marketing" team only needs access to customer-related documents stored in Salesforce. This means when a user who works in sales and marketing searches for customer-related documents, the user can see documents from Salesforce in their search results. Users who do not work in sales and marketing do not see Salesforce documents in their search results.

Warning

You are required to provide one of the following:

• User and groups information, and (optional) data sources information.

• Only the user information if you map your users to groups and data sources using the PutPrincipalMapping operation. You can also fetch access levels of groups and users in your AWS Single Sign-On identity source by using the UserGroupResolutionConfiguration structure.

If this information is not included in the query, Amazon Kendra returns all documents. If you provide this information, only documents with matching user IDs, groups, and data sources are returned.

You provide the user, groups and data sources information in the UserContext object and pass this in the Query. The user ID, and the list of groups and data sources should match the name you specify in the Principal object to identify the user, groups and data sources. The Principal object allows you to add a user, group, or data source to either an allow list or a deny list for accessing a document.

The following shows how to include user ID, groups, and data sources.

response = kendra.query(
    QueryText = query,
    IndexId = index,
    UserId = {
        UserId = "user1"
    },
    Groups = {
        Groups = ["Sales and Marketing"]
    },
    DataSourceGroups = {
        DataSourceGroups = [{"DataSourceId" : "SalesforceCustomerDocsGroup", "GroupId": "Sales and Marketing"}]
    })

Filtering by user attribute

When you query the index, you use the built-in attributes _user_id and _group_ids to specify the user and group information. You can set up to 100 group identifiers. You can add a user or a group to an allow list or a deny list for accessing a document using the Principal object. If a user or group is added to the deny list, the document is filtered out of any query that contains the user or group.

Warning

You are required to provide one of the following:

• User and group information.

• Only the user information if you map your users to groups and data sources using the PutPrincipalMapping operation. You can also fetch access levels of groups and users in your AWS Single Sign-On identity source by using the UserGroupResolutionConfiguration structure.

If this information is not included in the query, Amazon Kendra returns all documents. If you provide this information, only documents with matching user IDs and groups are returned.

You provide the user and groups attributes in the AttributeFilter object and pass this in the Query.

The following example shows a request that filters the query response based on the user ID and the groups "HR" and "IT", which the user belongs to. The query will return any document that has the user or the "HR" or "IT" groups in the allow list. If the user or either group is in the deny list for a document, the document is not returned.

response = kendra.query(
        QueryText = query,
        IndexId = index,
        AttributeFilter = {
            "OrAllFilters": [
                {
                    "EqualsTo": {
                        "Key": "_user_id",
                        "Value": {
                            "StringValue": "user1"
                        }
                     }
                },
                {
                    "EqualsTo": {
                        "Key": "_group_ids",
                        "Value": {
                            "StringListValue": ["HR", "IT"]
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
        )

You can also specify which data source a group can access in the Principal object.

Note

User context filtering isn't an authentication or authorization control for your content. It doesn't do user authentication on the user and groups sent to the Query operation. It is up to your application to ensure that the user and group information sent to Query operation is authenticated and authorized.

There is an implementation of user context filtering for each data source. The following section describes each implementation.

User context filtering for documents added directly to an index

To specify user context filters for a document that you add directly to an index, you provide the filter in the AccessControlList field of the document. You provide three pieces of information:

• The access that the entity should have. You can say ALLOW or DENY.

• The type of entity. You can say USER or GROUP.

• The name of the entity.

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for frequently asked questions

You can add user context information to frequently asked questions when you use custom .csv or JSON file formats. For more information, see Adding questions and answers directly to an index.

User context filtering for database data sources

For a database data source, information for user context filtering comes from a column in the source table. You specify the column name in the console or when you create the data source using the AclConfiguration field.

A database data source has the following limitations:

• You can only specify an allow list for a database data source. You can't specify a deny list.

• You can only specify groups. You can't specify individual users for the allow list.

• The database column should be string containing a semicolon delimited list of groups.

User context filtering for Confluence data sources

When you use a Confluence data source, Amazon Kendra gets user and group information from the Confluence instance.

You configure user and group access to spaces using the space permissions page. For pages and blogs, you use the restrictions page. For more information about space permissions, see Space Permissions Overview on the Confluence Support website. For more information about page and blog restrictions, see Page Restrictions on the Confluence Support website.

The Confluence group and user names are mapped as follows:

• _group_ids – Group names are present on spaces, pages, and blogs where there are restrictions. They are mapped from the name of the group in Confluence. Group names are always lower case.

• _user_id – User names are present on the space, page, or blog where there are restrictions. They are mapped depending on the type of Confluence instance you are using.

  • Server – The _user_id is the username. The username is always lower case.

  • Cloud – The _user_id is the account ID of the user.

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for Google Drive data sources

A Google Workspace Drive data source returns user and group information for Google Drive users and groups. Group and domain membership are mapped to the _group_ids index field. The Google Drive user name is mapped to the _user_id field.

When you provide one or more user email addresses in the Query operation, only documents that have been shared with those email addresses are returned. The following AttributeFilter parameter only returns documents shared with "[e-mail]".

"AttributeFilter": {
                "EqualsTo":{
                   "Key": "_user_id", 
                   "Value": {
                       "StringValue": "[e-mail]"
                   }
               }
           }

If you provide one or more group email addresses in the query, only documents shared with the groups are returned. The following AttributeFilter parameter only returns documents shared with the "[e-mail]" group.

"AttributeFilter": {
                "EqualsTo":{
                   "Key": "_group_ids", 
                   "Value": {
                       "StringListValue": ["[e-mail]"]
                   }
               }
           }

If you provide the domain in the query, all documents shared with the domain are returned. The following AttributeFilter parameter returns documents shared with the "example.com" domain.

"AttributeFilter": {
                "EqualsTo":{
                   "Key": "_group_ids", 
                   "Value": {
                       "StringListValue": ["example.com"]
                   }
               }
           }

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for Microsoft OneDrive data sources

Amazon Kendra retrieves user and group information from Microsoft OneDrive when it indexes the documents on the site. The user and group information is taken from the underlying Microsoft SharePoint site that hosts OneDrive.

When you use a OneDrive user or group for user context filtering, calculate the ID as follows:

1. Get the site name. For example, https://host.onmicrosoft.com/sites/siteName.

2. Take the MD5 hash of the site name. For example, 430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981.

3. Create the user email or group ID by concatenating the MD5 hash with a vertical bar (|) and the ID. For example, if a group name is "site owners", the group ID would be:

   "430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981|site owners"

   For the user name "[e-mail]," the user ID would be the following:

   "430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981|[e-mail]"

Send the user or group ID to Amazon Kendra as the _user_id or _group_ids attribute when you call the Query operation. For example, the AWS CLI command that uses a group to filter the query response looks like this:

aws kendra  query \
                --index-id index ID  
                --query-text "query text" 
                --attribute-filter '{
                   "EqualsTo":{
                     "Key": "_group_ids", 
                     "Value": {"StringValue": "430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981|site owners"}
                  }}'

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for Amazon S3 data sources

You add user context filtering to a document in an Amazon S3 data source using a metadata file associated with the document. You add the information to the AccessControlList field in the JSON document. For more information about adding metadata to the documents indexed from an Amazon S3 data source, see S3 document metadata.

You provide three pieces of information:

• The access that the entity should have. You can say ALLOW or DENY.

• The type of entity. You can say USER or GROUP.

• The name of the entity.

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for Salesforce data sources

A Salesforce data source returns user and group information from Salesforce access control list (ACL) entities. You can apply user context filtering to Salesforce standard objects and chatter feeds. User context filtering is not available for Salesforce knowledge articles.

For standard objects, the _user_id and _group_ids are used as follows:

• _user_id – The user name of the Salesforce user.

• _group_ids –

  • Name of the Salesforce Profile

  • Name of the Salesforce Group

  • Name of the Salesforce UserRole

  • Name of the Salesforce PermissionSet

For chatter feeds, the _user_id and _group_ids are used as follows:

• _user_id – The user name of the Salesforce user. Only available if the item is posted in the user's feed.

• _group_ids – Group IDs are used as follows. Only available if the feed item is posted in a chatter or collaboration group.

  • The name of the chatter or collaboration group.

  • If the group is public, PUBLIC:ALL.

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for ServiceNow data sources

User context filtering isn't currently supported for ServiceNow.

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for Microsoft SharePoint data sources

Amazon Kendra retrieves user and group information from Microsoft SharePoint when it indexes the documents on the site. To filter your documents, provide user and group information when you call the Query operation.

To filter using a user name, use the user's email address. For example, [e-mail].

When you use a SharePoint group for user context filtering, calculate the group ID as follows:

1. Get the site name. For example, https://host.onmicrosoft.com/sites/siteName.

2. Take the SHA256 hash of the site name. For example, 430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981.

3. Create the group ID by concatenating the SHA256 hash with a vertical bar (|) and the group name. For example, if the group name is "site owners", the group ID would be:

   "430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981|site owners"

Send the group ID to Amazon Kendra as the _group_ids attribute when you call the Query operation. For example, the AWS CLI command looks like this:

aws kendra  query \
                --index-id index ID  
                --query-text "query text" 
                --attribute-filter '{
                   "EqualsTo":{
                     "Key": "_group_ids", 
                     "Value": {"StringValue": "430a6b90503eef95c89295c8999c7981|site owners"}
                  }}'

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.

User context filtering for Amazon WorkDocs data sources

When you use an Amazon WorkDocs data source, Amazon Kendra gets user and group information from the Amazon WorkDocs instance.

The Amazon WorkDocs group and user names are mapped as follows:

• _group_ids – Group names are present on files where there are set access permissions. They are mapped from the name of the group in Amazon WorkDocs.

• _user_id – User names are present on files where there are set access permissions. They are mapped from the user name in Amazon WorkDocs.

You can add up to 200 entries in the AccessControlList field.