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fix: platform-wide glob role assignments crash get_orgs_for_user/has_org_for_user - #38980

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fix: platform-wide glob role assignments crash get_orgs_for_user/has_org_for_user#38980
efortish wants to merge 7 commits into
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eduNEXT:ks/issue-380-platform-glob-org

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@efortish

@efortish efortish commented Aug 12, 2026

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Description

Fixes openedx-authz#380

RoleBase._authz_get_orgs_for_user() (common/djangoapps/student/roles.py) reads assignment.scope.org for every AuthZ assignment. However, PlatformGlobData (the course-v1:* / lib:* platform-wide scopes) does not have an .org attribute, unlike CourseOverviewData / OrgGlobData, where .org is a valid (possibly None) field.

As a result, any user with a role assigned at a platform-wide scope would cause get_orgs_for_user() / has_org_for_user() to fail with an AttributeError.

The fix handles platform-wide assignments before accessing .org. Since a platform-wide grant applies to every organization, the compatibility layer returns all registered organization short names instead of trying to derive them from individual assignments.

Testing Instructions

  1. Enable the authz.enable_course_authoring flag globally.
  2. Assign a user a role at the platform-wide glob scope (course-v1:*).
  3. Call role.get_orgs_for_user(user) / role.has_org_for_user(user), or trigger any code path that uses them (e.g., the Studio course listing).
  4. Verify that all organizations are returned and no AttributeError is raised.

Added test_get_orgs_for_user_authz_platform_glob in common/djangoapps/student/tests/test_roles.py to cover this case.

…org_for_user

RoleBase._authz_get_orgs_for_user() read assignment.scope.org for every
AuthZ assignment, but PlatformGlobData (course-v1:*, lib:*) has no .org
attribute at all, unlike CourseOverviewData/OrgGlobData where it's a
real (possibly None) field. Any user with a platform-wide role crashed
get_orgs_for_user()/has_org_for_user() with an AttributeError.

Special-case platform-wide assignments: since they cover every org,
return all registered org short names instead of deriving them from
individual assignments.

Fixes openedx/openedx-authz#380
@openedx-webhooks openedx-webhooks added the open-source-contribution PR author is not from Axim or 2U label Aug 12, 2026
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Thanks for the pull request, @efortish!

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BryanttV added a commit to eduNEXT/edx-platform that referenced this pull request Aug 14, 2026

@BryanttV BryanttV left a comment

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LGTM! thanks

RoleAssignmentData(
subject=UserData(external_key=self.student.username),
roles=[staff_authz_role],
scope=PlatformCourseOverviewGlobData(external_key="course-v1:*"),

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Suggested change
scope=PlatformCourseOverviewGlobData(external_key="course-v1:*"),
scope=PlatformCourseOverviewGlobData.build_external_key(),

And could we please update test_course_listing.py module to use the build_external_key method? I forgot to do that in some of the tests.

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Applied — wrapped it in PlatformCourseOverviewGlobData(...) since the literal suggestion would assign a bare string to scope (RoleAssignmentData.scope expects a ScopeData instance). Also updated test_course_listing.py's platform/org-glob tests to use build_external_key() as you asked. Fixed in d32aa52.

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Yes, you're right. Now that I'm taking a closer look at the test, instead of mocking the assignments, could we use the assign_role_to_user_in_scope function? Something like this:

assign_role_to_user_in_scope(
    self.student.username,
    COURSE_STAFF.external_key,
    PlatformCourseOverviewGlobData.build_external_key(),
)

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Good idea — this is actually stronger, since it exercises the real Casbin assignment + policy load instead of mocking get_user_role_assignments_filtered. It also caught a latent bug in my mock: I had RoleData(external_key=COURSE_STAFF) (the RoleData object itself) instead of COURSE_STAFF.external_key, which the mock silently tolerated since it bypassed the real filtering. Switched to assign_role_to_user_in_scope + load_policy() in 795de56.

Per review feedback from @BryanttV on openedx#38980, also applied to
test_course_listing.py which had the same pattern in unrelated
pre-existing tests.
…ents

Per review feedback from @BryanttV on openedx#38980: exercising the real Casbin
policy assignment + get_orgs_for_user path is more faithful than mocking
get_user_role_assignments_filtered directly, and it catches issues the
mock papered over (the mocked RoleData had external_key=COURSE_STAFF, the
RoleData object itself, instead of COURSE_STAFF.external_key).
# with a concrete assignment. Platform-glob scopes have no .org attribute at all
# (unlike org-glob/course/library scopes, where it's a real field that can be None).
if any(assignment.scope.IS_PLATFORM_GLOB for assignment in assignments):
return [org["short_name"] for org in get_organizations()]

@mariajgrimaldi mariajgrimaldi Aug 19, 2026

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Sorry for being late to this review. Does this return the same structure as in L641? Can we make sure of this with a test - like a test case that for a user returns a subset and for another all orgs? Not sure if we're doing that already. Thanks

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No worries about the timing! Yes — both branches return the same shape, a plain list[str] of org short names (L640 is a list comprehension over get_organizations(), L641 is list(a set) of assignment.scope.org values). Added test_get_orgs_for_user_authz_platform_glob_vs_org_scoped: it registers a third org that's never assigned to anyone, then asserts an org-scoped grant returns only its own org while a platform-wide grant returns all three, against that same shared pool of orgs — so the two branches are actually distinguished instead of just coincidentally returning the same numbers (which is what my original platform_glob test alone couldn't rule out, since it only ever registered exactly the orgs it expected back). Verified locally against a real devstack. Fixed in fbb2726.

@mphilbrick211 mphilbrick211 moved this from Needs Triage to In Eng Review in Contributions Aug 19, 2026
Per review feedback from @mariajgrimaldi on openedx#38980: registers a third
org that's never assigned, then asserts an org-scoped grant returns
only its own org while a platform-wide grant returns all three,
against the same pool of registered orgs — so the two branches (roles.py
L640 vs L641, both list[str]) are actually distinguished by the test
instead of coincidentally matching.
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get_orgs_for_user/has_org_for_user crash on platform-wide glob roles

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