hive enable describe statement on restricted tables

Question

When using a big-data tool like HIVE usually a select * from mytable works, However, for a user which is only allowed to view specific columns the describe table statement and also integration for tools like Tableau are broken as these no longer can view all (or all allowed) columns as DESCRIBE TABLE is no longer possible i.e. denied in ranger.

Is there a workaround to re-enable the DESCRIBE statement? Currently, I see that manually creating a masked view.

Answer 1

It turns out that masking the tables in ranger is sufficient to restrict access, but retain the ability to execute the DESCRIBE statement.

Currently, this is a bit tedious as all columns need to be specified manually - probably atlas & tagging would be a more efficient solution.