Passing Security Information to SetFileSecurity()

Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q102100

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:
```
    - Microsoft Windows NT version 3.1
```

The SetFileSecurity() Win32 application programming interface (API) takes a pointer to a Security Descriptor. This is because SetFileSecurity() can set any of the following security information for a file:

   The owner identifier of the file
   The primary group identifier of the file
   The discretionary access-control list (DACL) of the file
   The system access-control list (SACL) of the file

When you pass the SD and SECURITY_INFORMATION structure to SetFileSecurity(), the SECURITY_INFORMATION structure identifies which security information is to be set. The SECURITY_INFORMATION structure is a DWORD that can be one of the following values:

   OWNER_SECURITY_INFORMATION
   GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION
   DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION
   SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION

Each of these values represents one of the security items listed above. The SD that is passed to SetFileSecurity() is simply a container for the security information being set for the specified file. SetFileSecurity() examines the value in the SECURITY_INFORMATION structure, extracts the appropriate information from the provided SD, and applies it to the specified file's SD.

Additional reference words: 3.10
KBCategory: kbprg
KBSubcategory: BseSecurity

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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