GetNamedSecurityInfoA function (aclapi.h)

Article
02/09/2023

The GetNamedSecurityInfo function retrieves a copy of the security descriptor for an object specified by name.

Syntax

DWORD GetNamedSecurityInfoA(
  [in]            LPCSTR               pObjectName,
  [in]            SE_OBJECT_TYPE       ObjectType,
  [in]            SECURITY_INFORMATION SecurityInfo,
  [out, optional] PSID                 *ppsidOwner,
  [out, optional] PSID                 *ppsidGroup,
  [out, optional] PACL                 *ppDacl,
  [out, optional] PACL                 *ppSacl,
  [out, optional] PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR *ppSecurityDescriptor
);

Parameters

[in] pObjectName

A pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the name of the object from which to retrieve security information. For descriptions of the string formats for the different object types, see SE_OBJECT_TYPE.

[in] ObjectType

Specifies a value from the SE_OBJECT_TYPE enumeration that indicates the type of object named by the pObjectName parameter.

[in] SecurityInfo

A set of bit flags that indicate the type of security information to retrieve. This parameter can be a combination of the SECURITY_INFORMATION bit flags.

[out, optional] ppsidOwner

A pointer to a variable that receives a pointer to the owner SID in the security descriptor returned in ppSecurityDescriptor or NULL if the security descriptor has no owner SID. The returned pointer is valid only if you set the OWNER_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. Also, this parameter can be NULL if you do not need the owner SID.

[out, optional] ppsidGroup

A pointer to a variable that receives a pointer to the primary group SID in the returned security descriptor or NULL if the security descriptor has no group SID. The returned pointer is valid only if you set the GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. Also, this parameter can be NULL if you do not need the group SID.

[out, optional] ppDacl

A pointer to a variable that receives a pointer to the DACL in the returned security descriptor or NULL if the security descriptor has no DACL. The returned pointer is valid only if you set the DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. Also, this parameter can be NULL if you do not need the DACL.

[out, optional] ppSacl

A pointer to a variable that receives a pointer to the SACL in the returned security descriptor or NULL if the security descriptor has no SACL. The returned pointer is valid only if you set the SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. Also, this parameter can be NULL if you do not need the SACL.

[out, optional] ppSecurityDescriptor

A pointer to a variable that receives a pointer to the security descriptor of the object. When you have finished using the pointer, free the returned buffer by calling the LocalFree function.

This parameter is required if any one of the ppsidOwner, ppsidGroup, ppDacl, or ppSacl parameters is not NULL.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is ERROR_SUCCESS.

If the function fails, the return value is a nonzero error code defined in WinError.h.

Remarks

If any of the ppsidOwner, ppsidGroup, ppDacl, or ppSacl parameters are non-NULL, and the SecurityInfo parameter specifies that they be retrieved from the object, those parameters will point to the corresponding parameters in the security descriptor returned in ppSecurityDescriptor. If the security descriptor does not contain the requested information, the corresponding parameter will be set to NULL.

To read the owner, group, or DACL from the object's security descriptor, the object's DACL must grant READ_CONTROL access to the caller, or the caller must be the owner of the object.

To read the system access control list of the object, the SE_SECURITY_NAME privilege must be enabled for the calling process. For information about the security implications of enabling privileges, see Running with Special Privileges.

You can use the GetNamedSecurityInfo function with the following types of objects:

Local or remote files or directories on an NTFS file system
Local or remote printers
Local or remote Windows services
Network shares
Registry keys
Semaphores, events, mutexes, and waitable timers
File-mapping objects
Directory service objects

This function does not handle race conditions. If your thread calls this function at the approximate time that another thread changes the object's security descriptor, then this function could fail.

This function transfers information in plaintext. The information transferred by this function is signed unless signing has been turned off for the system, but no encryption is performed.

For more information about controlling access to objects through user accounts, group accounts, or logon sessions, see How DACLs Control Access to an Object.

Examples

For an example that uses GetNamedSecurityInfo, see Modifying the ACLs of an Object.

Note

The aclapi.h header defines GetNamedSecurityInfo as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	aclapi.h
Library	Advapi32.lib
DLL	Advapi32.dll

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