Take Ownership Remotely Does Not Log Security Event

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51 and 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51 and 4.0

SYMPTOM

Taking ownership of a file or folder remotely does not log a security event the same way as taking ownership locally.

If, when taking ownership locally, the only audit policy enabled is "Use of User Rights," several "Privilege Use" events are logged. When taking ownership remotely over the network (through another Windows NT-based workstation or server or a Macintosh client connecting through Services for Macintosh), no events are generated in the security log.

CAUSE

When you take ownership of an object, there are two ways to get access to take ownership:

• Use the "Take Ownership of files or other objects" User Right.

  -or-

• Have WRITE_OWNER access to the object. WRITE_OWNER is part of Full Control in the Access Control List (ACL) so, if you grant Full Control to a user through NTFS permissions, the user can take ownership locally or remotely.

RESOLUTION

To get an audit event when taking ownership remotely, you need to have the "File and Object Access" audit policy turned on. The events are logged but can be difficult to find because there are so many events (every time an object is selected, an event is generated). Here is a sample of the event generated when taking ownership remotely:

   Event ID: 560
   Source: Security
   Category: Object Access
   Description:

   Object Open:
      Object Server: Security
      Object Type: File
      Object Name: C:\users\jdoe
      New Handle ID: 868
      Operation ID: {0,94189}
      Process ID: 4285605632
      Primary User Name: SYSTEM
      Primary Domain: SYSTEM
      Primary Logon ID: (0x0,0x3E7)
      Client User Name: jdoe
      Client Domain: DOMAINX
      Client Logon ID: (0x0,0x16A08)
      Accesses  WRITE_OWNER
         ReadAttributes
      Privileges     -

MORE INFORMATION

When you take ownership locally and "Use of User Rights" is enabled, four Event 578s are logged and the last Event 578 gives the detail about the actual ownership transaction, as is shown in the following example:

   Event ID: 578
   Source: Security
   Category: Privilege Use
   Description:

   Privileged object operation:
      Object Server: Security
      Object Handle: 232
      Process ID: 4289438976
      Primary User Name: jdoe
      Primary Domain: DOMAINX
      Primary Logon ID: (0x0,0xDC4)
      Client User Name: jdoe
      Client Domain: DOMAINX
      Client Logon ID: (0x0,0xDC4)
      Privileges: SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege

STATUS

This audit process is by design.