What is Special Permissions?

Question

I was checking the security rights for the folder C:WindowsSystem32Tasks and find that Authenticated Users group has Special Permissions (notice that it has no Write permissions):

I went into Advanced tab and the basic view is (notice that it has no Read permissions):

But when I clicked "Show advance permissions", it shows an additional "Read permissions":

Why does it say different things for the same folder in the three views? What is the actual access that the group Authenticated Users have on this folder?

Jing He · Answer

Found some useful documents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_descriptor
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2003/cc783530(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

Peter Hahndorf · Answer

Lets try two more ways to show the permissions:

icacls.exe:

NT AUTHORITYAuthenticated Users:(CI)(W,Rc)

Get-Acl:

NT AUTHORITYAuthenticated Users Allow  Write, ReadPermissions, Synchronize

Your second and third screenshot actually show very similar permissions, the third one being the most precise.

I think the Write permissions should also be shown in the first screenshot, this may be a bug, but permissions can be complicated.

About Read:

on the first two screenshops Read means being able to read the contents of the file/folder, on the third screenshot they list advanced permissions, Read permissions means being able to read the NTFS permissions of the object, not the content itself.
These are two different things.

What is Special Permissions?

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question