Reference to all users/groups in Active Directory

Question

I am working with an application that allows security to a hierarchy of folders to be set through Active Directory. I have run into an issue with the application where it seems that the default security mode for all users is full access, and only those users that are deliberately excluded will not be able to receive access. So I would thus like to set the permissions so that all users/groups in a domain are excluded, and then explicitly include the groups and users that should have access.

So my question: is there a way that I can refer to all groups and/or users within Active Directory? For domain ABC, and user XYZ, I would input ABC\XYZ. Same for a group. Is there a syntax like ABC\* that would be a blanket reference to all users and groups for the domain? Or would I have to go in and exclude them all explicitly?

Solution 1

"Authenticated Users" includes all domain users, not sure if this would be available within your application but it works for group policies.

Solution 2

"Everyone", "Domain Users" or "Domain Admins" etc. are other ways to reference your users.

See this article with more info (I think it is still valid today)

Important text:

However, if you've enabled the Guest account, you'll find that users who have logged on as Guest are members of Everyone but not members of Users or Authenticated Users.

Comments

[Admin]

I don't have a full reply to you, but a lead. AD is LDAP. It is queried just like any other LDAP. You will have to find the LDAP "recipe" that suits your needs.

[Yaakov Ellis]

Another option is "Domain Users" (I would add this through an edit, but don't have enough rep yet)

[Allison]

Authenticated Users didn't work for me on 2011 but Domain Users did, thanks for the add on.

[Newtopian]

link is dead...