What is a guest user?

[antonymirza]

Hi,

I have a confusion with "Guest" user. I don't see such a user profile in ServiceNow but many times found some of scripts updated by "guest" user profile.

Can anyone please clarify/explain what is a guest user and how it comes in picture?

Brgds, AM

[Nitesh Asthana1]

Hi Bhupesh / Antony,

Here is the link,

https://<your_instance>.service-now.com/sys_user_list.do?sysparm_query=user_nameSTARTSWITHguest

Just copy and paste in the URL bar and replace <your_instance> with your instance name.

Hope this helps.

Do not feel shy to mark correct or helpful answer if it helps or is correct.

Best Regards,

Nitesh Asthana

[venishawakodika]

Yes, just use filter User ID contains guest or Name contains guest.

Regards,

Vineetha Rohra

[venishawakodika]

As per service-now functionality,while creating incident through inbound email action ,it will check the email address in sys_user table.

if email address didn't match with any user record,it creates incident with GUEST User.

If you don't want to create guest user incidents, refer following link for solution:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/istanbul-servicenow-platform/page/administer/notification/task/t_...

Regards,

Vineetha Rohra

[BhupeshG]

Does it play any role in Authentication or login of other users in the system especially in Multi SSO env

With Regards

Bhupesh Gupta

[saprem_d]

Hello,

Guest user is used for all unauthenticated transaction in ServiceNow. A few Examples are

- Processing of inbound email actions: When an email is received by ServiceNow, tool does not know if the user exists in user table and hence does not know about the authenticity of the transaction. The guest user then processes the script of the matching inbound action and if the "sent from" matches with any profile existing in sys_user table, system impersonates that user and as per his access, performs operation on target records. If user is not found, system processes script through session of guest user.

- Processing of SSO authentication: When a user send a SAML request and ServiceNow receives the response, the guest user actually logs in and finds the relevant IDP to be used for the authentication. Further, it also queries sys_user table to be used in the SSO scripts to check if the user who is trying to login through SSO actually exists in sys_user table. Guest user should always exists in global scope in domain separated instances as global scope entitle the user to access all data/processes.

Hope this Helps!!