BigQuery table is public

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Metadata

Id: a9b8c7d6-e5f4-3210-abcd-1234567890ab

Cloud Provider: gcp

Framework: Terraform

Severity: High

Category: Insecure Configurations

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Description

When BigQuery tables are configured with public access through IAM members or bindings using principals such as allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers, they expose potentially sensitive data to anyone on the internet or any authenticated Google account. This significantly increases the risk of data breaches, unauthorized access, and compliance violations related to data privacy regulations.

To secure BigQuery tables, always restrict access to specific authenticated users, service accounts, or groups instead of using public principals. For example, use user:someone@example.com instead of allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers as shown in this comparison:

// Insecure configuration
resource "google_bigquery_table_iam_member" "insecure_example" {
  dataset_id = "my_dataset"
  table_id   = "my_table"
  member     = "allUsers"
  role       = "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
}

// Secure configuration
resource "google_bigquery_table_iam_member" "secure_example" {
  dataset_id = "my_dataset"
  table_id   = "my_table"
  member     = "user:someone@example.com"
  role       = "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
}

Compliant Code Examples

# IAM Binding compliant
resource "google_bigquery_table_iam_binding" "good_example_binding" {
  table   = "example_table"
  members = ["user:someone@example.com", "group:admins@example.com"] # ✅ No public principals
  role    = "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
}

# IAM Member compliant
resource "google_bigquery_table_iam_member" "good_example_member" {
  table  = "example_table"
  member = "user:someone@example.com" # ✅ Non-public principal
  role   = "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
}

Non-Compliant Code Examples

# IAM Member violation
resource "google_bigquery_table_iam_member" "bad_example_member" {
  table  = "example_table"
  member = "allUsers" # ❌ Public principal
  role   = "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
}

# IAM Binding violation
resource "google_bigquery_table_iam_binding" "bad_example_binding" {
  table   = "example_table"
  members = ["allAuthenticatedUsers", "user:someone@example.com"] # ❌ Contains public principal
  role    = "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
}