SetSecurityInfo function (aclapi.h)

Article
10/13/2021

The SetSecurityInfo function sets specified security information in the security descriptor of a specified object. The caller identifies the object by a handle.

To set the SACL of an object, the caller must have the SE_SECURITY_NAME privilege enabled.

Syntax

DWORD SetSecurityInfo(
  [in]           HANDLE               handle,
  [in]           SE_OBJECT_TYPE       ObjectType,
  [in]           SECURITY_INFORMATION SecurityInfo,
  [in, optional] PSID                 psidOwner,
  [in, optional] PSID                 psidGroup,
  [in, optional] PACL                 pDacl,
  [in, optional] PACL                 pSacl
);

Parameters

[in] handle

A handle to the object for which to set security information.

[in] ObjectType

A member of the SE_OBJECT_TYPE enumeration that indicates the type of object identified by the handle parameter.

[in] SecurityInfo

A set of bit flags that indicate the type of security information to set. This parameter can be a combination of the SECURITY_INFORMATION bit flags.

[in, optional] psidOwner

A pointer to a SID that identifies the owner of the object. The SID must be one that can be assigned as the owner SID of a security descriptor. The SecurityInfo parameter must include the OWNER_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. This parameter can be NULL if you are not setting the owner SID.

[in, optional] psidGroup

A pointer to a SID that identifies the primary group of the object. The SecurityInfo parameter must include the GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. This parameter can be NULL if you are not setting the primary group SID.

[in, optional] pDacl

A pointer to the new DACL for the object. This parameter is ignored unless the value of the SecurityInfo parameter includes the DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag. If the value of the SecurityInfo parameter includes the DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION flag and the value of this parameter is set to NULL, full access to the object is granted to everyone. For information about null DACLs, see Creating a DACL.

[in, optional] pSacl

A pointer to the new SACL for the object. The SecurityInfo parameter must include any of the following flags: SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION, LABEL_SECURITY_INFORMATION, ATTRIBUTE_SECURITY_INFORMATION, SCOPE_SECURITY_INFORMATION, or BACKUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION. If setting SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION or SCOPE_SECURITY_INFORMATION, the caller must have the SE_SECURITY_NAME privilege enabled. This parameter can be NULL if you are not setting the SACL.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the function returns ERROR_SUCCESS.

If the function fails, it returns a nonzero error code defined in WinError.h.

Remarks

If you are setting the discretionary access control list (DACL) or any elements in the system access control list (SACL) of an object, the system automatically propagates any inheritable access control entries (ACEs) to existing child objects, according to the ACE inheritance rules.

You can use the SetSecurityInfo function with the following types of objects:

Local or remote files or directories on an NTFS
Named pipes
Local or remote printers
Local or remote Windows services
Network shares
Registry keys
Semaphores, events, mutexes, and waitable timers
Processes, threads, jobs, and file-mapping objects
Window stations and desktops
Directory service objects

The SetSecurityInfo function does not reorder access-allowed or access-denied ACEs based on the preferred order. When propagating inheritable ACEs to existing child objects, SetSecurityInfo puts inherited ACEs in order after all of the noninherited ACEs in the DACLs of the child objects.

Note If share access to the children of the object is not available, this function will not propagate unprotected ACEs to the children. For example, if a directory is opened with exclusive access, the operating system will not propagate unprotected ACEs to the subdirectories or files of that directory when the security on the directory is changed.

Warning If the supplied handle was opened with an ACCESS_MASK value of MAXIMUM_ALLOWED, then the SetSecurityInfo function will not propagate ACEs to children.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	aclapi.h
Library	Advapi32.lib
DLL	Advapi32.dll