Access Denied to Search Results for Non-Administrators

• Microsoft Search, included with:
  • Microsoft Site Server version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

Protected documents (documents with access control lists [ACLs] applied) are not returned by Search when used in the "high performance" query path. Users without administrative privileges cannot see secure content, even though they have read permission on the file.

System administrators are able to perform a query and have the secure content returned.

The high performance query path has no sort clauses, and no hit count is retrieved. Sometimes having the rank clause can also lead to this behavior.

CAUSE

The high performance queries are run in the context of the user's security, which does not have permission to open the security table unless the user is an administrator.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, apply the latest Site Server 3.0 service pack.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Site Server version 3.0. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Microsoft Site Server version 3.0. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

Additional query words: sp

Keywords : prodsitesrv3 prodsrch SS3Sp1Public Ss3Sp1fix
Version : WINNT:3.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug