How do you grant read-only permissions on NTFS Security settings?

Question

Is it possible to create a security group that can read who has permission to do what on NTFS folders but without granting Full Control or letting the group open files within those folders?

Solution

The minimum permission required to read a folder's permissions (DACL) is READ_CONTROL ("Read Permission"). If you also want to be able to view the folder's subfolders, FILE_LIST_DIRECTORY ("List Folder") is required.

But beware: When set on a directory, FILE_LIST_DIRECTORY gives you the right to list the children, but when set on a file it allows you to read the content.

So you probably want to use FILE_LIST_DIRECTORY+READ_CONTROL, set that on a root directory and have the permissions apply (inherit) to subfolders only, but not to files.

With SetACL you could set such permissions like this:

SetACL -on PathToDirectory -ot file -actn ace -ace n:UserOrGroup;p:list_dir,read_dacl;i:so

Comments

[Chum]

Thank you for the advice. Will test. Your SetACL tool looks interesting also.

[Helge Klein]

Please consider marking useful and/or correct answers as such (at the left of each answer).

[Chum]

Done - thanks again. When my rep goes up I will upvote your answer too. :)

[Dogmatixed]

what is the difference between List Folder and Traverse Folder in this context?

[Helge Klein]

Please open a new thread for new questions. Anyway, here is the answer: "For folders: The Traverse Folder permission applies only to folders. This permission allows or denies the user from moving through folders to reach other files or folders, even if the user has no permissions for the traversed folders. Traverse Folder takes effect only when the group or user is not granted the Bypass Traverse Checking user right. The Bypass Traverse Checking user right checks user rights in the Group Policy snap-in." [From support.microsoft.com/kb/308419]