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Security Descriptors

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Every object has a security descriptor, which contains the security settings for an object. In kernel-mode, the opaque SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR data type represents a security descriptor.

Information in a security descriptor is stored in access control lists (ACLs). An access control list is made up of a series of access control entries (ACEs).

A security descriptor has two separate ACLs:

  • A system ACL (SACL), which determines which operations on an object are logged.

  • A discretionary ACL (DACL), which determines which users can perform particular operations on the object.

Typically, a driver developer is only concerned with discretionary ACLs. For more information about system ACLs, see the Microsoft Windows SDK.

For a discretionary ACL, each ACE contains three pieces of information:

  • A security identifier (SID). The security identifier determines who the ACE applies to. A SID can represent a single user, or a group of users. For example, the World SID represents the set of all users.

  • A set of access rights. For a description of access rights, see Access Rights.

  • Whether the set of access rights is granted, or denied.

For a driver, the most important security descriptors are those for the driver's device objects. For more information, see Securing Device Objects.

For more information about security descriptors in general, see the Windows SDK.