Programmatic security management in Neo4j — RBAC/ABAC, user lifecycle (CREATE/ALTER/DROP USER), role lifecycle (CREATE/GRANT ROLE/DROP ROLE), privilege grants and denies (GRANT/DENY/REVOKE on graph, database, DBMS), property-level access control, sub-graph access control, SHOW PRIVILEGES inspection,

When to Use Creating, altering, suspending, or dropping users Creating roles, granting/revoking role membership Granting/denying/revoking graph, database, or DBMS privileges Inspecting current privileges ( SHOW PRIVILEGES ) Implementing property level access control (read/write per property) Setting up ABAC rules against OIDC claims or native user tags Referencing LDAP/SSO auth provider configuration When NOT to Use Writing Cypher queries against application data → neo4j cypher skill Cluster ops, backups, server config → neo4j cli tools skill Driver connection setup → neo4j driver skill MCP Write Gate — MANDATORY Before executing ANY of the following, show the planned command and wait for explicit confirmation: CREATE USER / ALTER USER / DROP USER CREATE ROLE / DROP ROLE GRANT / DENY / REVOKE (any privilege) CREATE AUTH RULE / DROP AUTH RULE Never auto execute privilege changes. Show exact Cypher, annotate impact, get "yes". Execution Context All security Cypher runs against the system database: 1. User Management Create user Parameterised password (preferred in scripts) Alter user User tags [2026.06+, Enterprise] Tags are arbitrary strings on the native user object, readable in ABAC rules via abac.native.user tags() . SET/ADD/REMOVE TAG[S] requires SET USER METADATA ; reading tag values requires SHOW USER METADATA : Show users Drop user 2. Role Management Create / drop role Assign / remove roles Inspect roles 3. Privilege Decision Table Goal Command Allow db connection GRANT ACCESS ON DATABASE mydb TO analyst Read all graph data GRANT MATCH { } ON GRAPH mydb ELEMENTS TO analyst Read specific label GRANT MATCH { } ON GRAPH mydb NODES Person TO analyst Read specific rel type GRANT MATCH { } ON GRAPH mydb RELATIONSHIPS KNOWS TO analyst Read one property GRANT READ {email} ON GRAPH mydb NODES Person TO analyst Traverse but hide properties GRANT TRAVERSE ON GRAPH mydb NODES Person TO analyst Write (create/set) GRANT WRITE ON GRAPH mydb TO writer Create nodes only GRANT CREATE ON GRAPH mydb NODES Person TO writer Delete nodes only GRANT DELETE ON GRAPH mydb NODES Person TO writer Execute procedure GRANT EXECUTE PROCEDURE apoc. TO analyst Execute function GRANT EXECUTE USER DEFINED FUNCTION apoc. TO analyst All on one db GRANT ALL ON DATABASE mydb TO dba Full DBMS admin GRANT ALL ON DBMS TO dba Manage users GRANT USER MANAGEMENT ON DBMS TO secadmin Manage user tags [2026.06] GRANT USER METADATA MANAGEMENT ON DBMS TO secadmin Manage roles GRANT ROLE MANAGEMENT ON DBMS TO secadmin Schema changes GRANT CREATE ELEMENT TYPES ON DATABASE mydb TO schemaadmin DENY overrides GRANT REVOKE removes a specific grant or deny 4. Common Role Patterns Read only analyst Write role (no admin) Read only on specific labels only DBA role (full admin) 5. Property Level Access Control (Enterprise) Restrict read access to individual properties: Property based pattern matching (sub graph access): Constraints: FOR pattern applies to read privileges only — not write Each property based privilege restricted by a single property Performance overhead scales with number of rules; TRAVERSE rules cost more than READ Ensure the property used for rules cannot be modified by the restricted role 6. ABAC — Attribute Based Access Control (Enterprise) ABAC grants roles dynamically from OIDC/JWT claims or native user tags rather than explicit GRANT ROLE ... TO user . Prerequisites Unlisted provider → its accessor function ( abac.oidc.user attribute() , abac.native.user tags() ) unavailable and rules referencing it fail (no silent default). Create auth rule Compound conditions Manage auth rules Native users [2026.06+]: tag native DB users (see [User tags]( user tags 202606 enterprise)) and match tags in rules via abac.native.user tags() — no OIDC required: ❌ Never condition on tag absence: NOT ('restricted' IN abac.native.user tags()) — any user created without tags satisfies it, escalating privileges. ✅ Require presence of a tag: 'unrestricted' IN abac.native.user tags() . Notes: Missing claims evaluate to NULL → rule condition false → role not granted Rules apply immediately to existing sessions when claims are already loaded OIDC claims via abac.oidc.user attribute() ; native user tags via abac.native.user tags() [2026.06+]. LDAP has no accessor function — tag the LDAP user's native user object instead User defined functions rejected in PBAC property rule predicates [2026.06+] Infinigraph (sharded property databases) supports PBAC READ only, granted on the virtual database [2026.07+, not on Aura] — see [references/privilege reference.md](references/privilege reference.md) 7. SHOW PRIVILEGES Patterns 8. Built in Roles (do not drop) Role Scope admin Full DBMS + all databases architect Schema changes + write on all databases publisher Write on all databases editor Write excluding schema changes reader Read only on all databases public All users implicitly; default home database access Assign built in roles: GRANT ROLE reader TO alice; 9. Auth Provider Config Reference (operational — not Cypher) Native (default) LDAP OIDC / SSO (Okta, Auth0, Entra ID) Config changes require server restart . Roles referenced in mappings must exist in Neo4j (native or created via Cypher). Checklist — New Role Setup [ ] Determine required operations: read / write / admin [ ] Identify target database(s) and graph scope (all labels vs specific) [ ] Identify any properties that must be hidden (→ DENY READ) [ ] Create role: CREATE ROLE ... IF NOT EXISTS [ ] Grant ACCESS on database [ ] Grant MATCH / TRAVERSE / WRITE as needed [ ] Apply DENY for restricted properties [ ] Run SHOW ROLE ... PRIVILEGES AS COMMANDS to verify [ ] Assign to users: GRANT ROLE ... TO ... [ ] Test with SHOW USER ... PRIVILEGES AS COMMANDS Full privilege syntax → [references/privilege reference.md](references/privilege reference.md)

neo4j-security-skill