KB-1027 "User Does Not Have Rights to Perform this Operation" error thrown when running a process

Symptoms

One of the following symptoms is observed:

1. A process has failed to run. The application server log reports that the user does not have the required permissions/rights:

INFO  [stdout] (Appian Work Item - XXXXX - ProcessExecXX : ExpressionGroupRequest) PrivilegeException[null=>null]: User Does Not Have Rights to Perform this Operation

2. An email with an attachment fails to start a process. The following error is found in the application server log:

YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss [Appian EmailHandlerBean - 97] ERROR com.appiancorp.messaging.MessagePublisherServiceImpl - Could not process received email
com.appiancorp.security.authz.AuthorizationException: The user [xxxxx] does not have sufficient privileges to perform the requested action because they are not in any role. (APNX-1-4188-001)

Cause

There are two possible reasons for this error:

The process fails because the user was deactivated. When a user is deactivated, it no longer has any permissions to run a process.
The user belongs to a group which has no access or permissions on the process model. For instance, a user cannot execute a sub-process activity it does not have at least initiator privileges on the sub-process model.

Action

Check the permissions of the process initiator to ensure the user has sufficient permissions to start the process. Check the status of the process designer to make sure the user has not been deactivated.

If the initiator does not have the correct permissions, add the user to the required group(s). If the process is still failing, temporarily add this user to a new group and then remove it. Remember to verify that the permissions granted to new group match those required by the process model.

If the process designer was deactivated, either reactivate the user or rebpulish the model using an active user account with the correct permissions.

Note: To prevent this issue from occurring in the future, configure the process model to run as the Process Designer. To access this setting:

Open the process model as process designer which was paused.
Double-click on the node which gave the error.
Open the Assignment tab.
Select the option Run as whoever designed this process model.

When the process runs as the Process Designer, Appian recommends that process models be imported using a service account of type System Administrator that will never be deactivated.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian.

Last Reviewed: March 2020