influxdata/influxdb · error · NewRoleDescriptionError

role description contains invalid characters: only…

Error message

role description contains invalid characters: only alphanumeric and [{0}] are allowed

What it means

NewRoleDescriptionError::InvalidCharacters is returned when a role description contains characters outside the allowed set (alphanumeric plus those listed via format_allowed_chars). This keeps descriptions safe for storage and display.

Solutions

1. Restrict the description to alphanumeric characters and the allowed punctuation shown in the error message
2. Sanitize input by stripping or replacing disallowed characters before submission
3. Validate client-side with the same allowlist regex used by the library

Example fix

// before
let desc = "read <all> data \u{1F680}"; // contains disallowed chars
// after
let desc = "read all data";

fn valid_role_description_chars(desc: &str) -> bool {
    // match the allowlist used by NewRoleDescriptionError (alphanumeric + allowed punctuation)
    desc.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || c == '-' || c == '_' || c == ' ' || c == '.')
}

fn sanitize_role_description(raw: &str) -> String {
    raw.chars().filter(|c| c.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || matches!(c, '-' | '_' | ' ' | '.')).collect()
}

When it happens

Trigger: Providing a description with disallowed symbols or control/non-ASCII characters when creating or updating a role.

Common situations: Descriptions pasted from rich-text editors or containing angle brackets, quotes, or emoji that fail the allowlist.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• role description cannot be empty
• role description exceeds maximum length of
• role name contains invalid characters: only alphanumeric and
• role name exceeds maximum length of
• All `DataPoints` must have at least one field. Builder…

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fbc060bbfa5711ba. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at influxdb3_authz/src/role/role.rs:140

        Ok(Self(description.to_string()))
    }

    pub fn into_inner(self) -> String {
        self.0
    }

    pub fn new_unchecked(description: String) -> Self {
        Self(description)
    }
}

#[derive(Debug, Clone, Error)]
pub enum NewRoleDescriptionError {
    #[error("role description cannot be empty")]
    Empty,
    #[error("role description exceeds maximum length of {ROLE_DESCRIPTION_MAX_LENGTH} characters")]
    TooLong,
    #[error(
        "role description contains invalid characters: only alphanumeric and [{0}] are allowed"
    )]
    InvalidCharacters(String),
}

fn format_allowed_chars(chars: &[char]) -> String {
    chars
        .iter()
        .map(|c| format!("'{c}'"))
        .collect::<Vec<_>>()
        .join(", ")
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 06200ef96b)