Converting a Binary SID to String Format

Windows 2000 provides the ConvertSidToStringSid and ConvertStringSidToSid functions for converting a SID to and from string format. For a description of the SID string format, see SID Components.

On earlier versions of Windows NT, you can use the following sample code to convert a SID to sting format.

BOOL GetTextualSid(
    PSID pSid,            // binary Sid
    LPTSTR TextualSid,    // buffer for Textual representation of Sid
    LPDWORD lpdwBufferLen // required/provided TextualSid buffersize
    )
{
    PSID_IDENTIFIER_AUTHORITY psia;
    DWORD dwSubAuthorities;
    DWORD dwSidRev=SID_REVISION;
    DWORD dwCounter;
    DWORD dwSidSize;

    // Validate the binary SID.

    if(!IsValidSid(pSid)) return FALSE;

    // Get the identifier authority value from the SID.

    psia = GetSidIdentifierAuthority(pSid);

    // Get the number of subauthorities in the SID.

    dwSubAuthorities = *GetSidSubAuthorityCount(pSid);

    // Compute the buffer length.
    // S-SID_REVISION- + IdentifierAuthority- + subauthorities- + NULL

    dwSidSize=(15 + 12 + (12 * dwSubAuthorities) + 1) * sizeof(TCHAR);

    // Check input buffer length.
    // If too small, indicate the proper size and set last error.

    if (*lpdwBufferLen < dwSidSize)
    {
        *lpdwBufferLen = dwSidSize;
        SetLastError(ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER);
        return FALSE;
    }

    // Add 'S' prefix and revision number to the string.

    dwSidSize=wsprintf(TextualSid, TEXT("S-%lu-"), dwSidRev );

    // Add SID identifier authority to the string.

    if ( (psia->Value[0] != 0) || (psia->Value[1] != 0) )
    {
        dwSidSize+=wsprintf(TextualSid + lstrlen(TextualSid),
                    TEXT("0x%02hx%02hx%02hx%02hx%02hx%02hx"),
                    (USHORT)psia->Value[0],
                    (USHORT)psia->Value[1],
                    (USHORT)psia->Value[2],
                    (USHORT)psia->Value[3],
                    (USHORT)psia->Value[4],
                    (USHORT)psia->Value[5]);
    }
    else
    {
        dwSidSize+=wsprintf(TextualSid + lstrlen(TextualSid),
                    TEXT("%lu"),
                    (ULONG)(psia->Value[5]      )   +
                    (ULONG)(psia->Value[4] <<  8)   +
                    (ULONG)(psia->Value[3] << 16)   +
                    (ULONG)(psia->Value[2] << 24)   );
    }

    // Add SID subauthorities to the string.
    //
    for (dwCounter=0 ; dwCounter < dwSubAuthorities ; dwCounter++)
    {
        dwSidSize+=wsprintf(TextualSid + dwSidSize, TEXT("-%lu"),
                    *GetSidSubAuthority(pSid, dwCounter) );
    }

    return TRUE;
}