C Test if user has write access to a folder

Question

I need to test if a user can write to a folder before actually attempting to do so    I ve implemented the following method  in C  2 0  that attempts to retrieve the security permissions for the folder using Directory GetAccessControl   method   private bool hasWriteAccessToFolder string folderPath        try                  Attempt to get a list of security permissions from the folder              This will raise an exception if the path is read only or do not have access to view the permissions           System Security AccessControl DirectorySecurity ds   Directory GetAccessControl folderPath           return true            catch  UnauthorizedAccessException                return false            When I was googling how to test for write access nothing like this came up and it appeared very complicated to actually test permissions in Windows  I am concerned that I am over-simplifying things and that this method is not robust   although it does seem to work   Will my method to test if the current user has write access work correctly

User · Answer

Your code gets the DirectorySecurity for a given directory  and handles an exception  due to your not having access to the security info  correctly  However  in your sample you don t actually interrogate the returned object to see what access is allowed - and I think you need to add this in

User · Answer

I tried most of these  but they give false positives  all for the same reason   It is not enough to test the directory for an available permission  you have to check that the logged in user is a member of a group that has that permission  To do this you get the users identity  and check if it is a member of a group that contains the FileSystemAccessRule IdentityReference  I have tested this  works flawlessly             lt summary gt          Test a directory for create file access permissions          lt  summary gt           lt param name  DirectoryPath  gt Full path to directory  lt  param gt           lt param name  AccessRight  gt File System right tested lt  param gt           lt returns gt State  bool  lt  returns gt      public static bool DirectoryHasPermission string DirectoryPath  FileSystemRights AccessRight                if  string IsNullOrEmpty DirectoryPath   return false           try                       AuthorizationRuleCollection rules   Directory GetAccessControl DirectoryPath  GetAccessRules true  true  typeof System Security Principal SecurityIdentifier                WindowsIdentity identity   WindowsIdentity GetCurrent                 foreach  FileSystemAccessRule rule in rules                                if  identity Groups Contains rule IdentityReference                                         if   AccessRight  amp  rule FileSystemRights     AccessRight                                                if  rule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Allow                              return true                                                                          catch             return false

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I couldn t get GetAccessControl   to throw an exception on Windows 7 as recommended in the accepted answer   I ended up using a variation of sdds s answer           try                       bool writeable   false              WindowsPrincipal principal   new WindowsPrincipal WindowsIdentity GetCurrent                 DirectorySecurity security   Directory GetAccessControl pstrPath               AuthorizationRuleCollection authRules   security GetAccessRules true  true  typeof SecurityIdentifier                 foreach  FileSystemAccessRule accessRule in authRules                                 if  principal IsInRole accessRule IdentityReference as SecurityIdentifier                                         if   FileSystemRights WriteData  amp  accessRule FileSystemRights     FileSystemRights WriteData                                                if  accessRule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Allow                                                        writeable   true                                                    else if  accessRule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Deny                                                          Deny usually overrides any Allow                             return false                                                                                                return writeable                    catch  UnauthorizedAccessException                        return false              Hope this helps

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Here is a modified version of CsabaS s answer  which accounts for explicit deny access rules  The function goes through all FileSystemAccessRules for a directory  and checks if the current user is in a role which has access to a directory  If no such roles are found or the user is in a role with denied access  the function returns false  To check read rights  pass FileSystemRights Read to the function  for write rights  pass FileSystemRights Write  If you want to check an arbitrary user s rights and not the current one s  substitute the currentUser WindowsIdentity for the desired WindowsIdentity  I would also advise against relying on functions like this to determine if the user can safely use the directory  This answer perfectly explains why       public static bool UserHasDirectoryAccessRights string path  FileSystemRights accessRights                var isInRoleWithAccess   false           try                       var di   new DirectoryInfo path               var acl   di GetAccessControl                var rules   acl GetAccessRules true  true  typeof NTAccount                 var currentUser   WindowsIdentity GetCurrent                var principal   new WindowsPrincipal currentUser               foreach  AuthorizationRule rule in rules                                var fsAccessRule   rule as FileSystemAccessRule                  if  fsAccessRule    null                      continue                   if   fsAccessRule FileSystemRights  amp  accessRights   gt  0                                        var ntAccount   rule IdentityReference as NTAccount                      if  ntAccount    null                          continue                       if  principal IsInRole ntAccount Value                                                 if  fsAccessRule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Deny                              return false                          isInRoleWithAccess   true                                                                          catch  UnauthorizedAccessException                        return false                    return isInRoleWithAccess

User · Answer

http   www codeproject com KB files UserFileAccessRights aspx  Very usefull Class  check for improved version in messages bellow

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I agree with Ash  that should be fine  Alternatively you could use declarative CAS and actually prevent the program from running in the first place if they don t have access   I believe some of the CAS features may not be present in C  4 0 from what I ve heard  not sure if that might be an issue or not

User · Answer

Try this   try       DirectoryInfo di   new DirectoryInfo path       DirectorySecurity acl   di GetAccessControl        AuthorizationRuleCollection rules   acl GetAccessRules true  true  typeof NTAccount         WindowsIdentity currentUser   WindowsIdentity GetCurrent        WindowsPrincipal principal   new WindowsPrincipal currentUser       foreach  AuthorizationRule rule in rules                FileSystemAccessRule fsAccessRule   rule as FileSystemAccessRule          if  fsAccessRule    null              continue           if   fsAccessRule FileSystemRights  amp  FileSystemRights WriteData   gt  0                        NTAccount ntAccount   rule IdentityReference as NTAccount              if  ntAccount    null                                continue                             if  principal IsInRole ntAccount Value                                 Console WriteLine  Current user is in role of  0   has write access   ntAccount Value                   continue                            Console WriteLine  Current user is not in role of  0   does not have write access   ntAccount Value                                             catch  UnauthorizedAccessException        Console WriteLine  does not have write access

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public bool IsDirectoryWritable string dirPath  bool throwIfFails   false        try               using  FileStream fs   File Create              Path Combine                  dirPath                   Path GetRandomFileName                               1              FileOptions DeleteOnClose                                return true            catch               if  throwIfFails              throw          else             return false

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Above solutions are good but for me  I find this code simple and workable  Just create a temporary file  If the file is created  its mean user has the write access           public static bool HasWritePermission string tempfilepath                        try                               System IO File Create tempfilepath    temp txt   Close                    System IO File Delete tempfilepath    temp txt                              catch  System UnauthorizedAccessException ex                                 return false                             return true

User · Answer

Most of the answers here does not check for write access  It just check if the user group can  Read Permission   Read the ACE list of the file directory     Also iterating through ACE and checking if it matches the Security Identifier does not work because the user can be a member of a group from which he might get lose privilege  Worse than that is nested groups   I know this is an old thread but there is a better way for any one looking now    Provided the user has Read Permission privilege is  one can use the Authz API to check Effective access    https   docs microsoft com en-us windows win32 secauthz using-authz-api  https   docs microsoft com en-us windows win32 secauthz checking-access-with-authz-api

User · Answer

That s a perfectly valid way to check for folder access in C    The only place it might fall down is if you need to call this in a tight loop where the overhead of an exception may be an issue   There have been other similar questions asked previously

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I appreciate that this is a little late in the day for this post  but you might find this bit of code useful   string path     c  temp   string NtAccountName     MyDomain MyUserOrGroup    DirectoryInfo di   new DirectoryInfo path   DirectorySecurity acl   di GetAccessControl AccessControlSections All   AuthorizationRuleCollection rules   acl GetAccessRules true  true  typeof NTAccount       Go through the rules returned from the DirectorySecurity foreach  AuthorizationRule rule in rules          If we find one that matches the identity we are looking for     if  rule IdentityReference Value Equals NtAccountName StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase                 var filesystemAccessRule    FileSystemAccessRule rule             Cast to a FileSystemAccessRule to check for access rights         if   filesystemAccessRule FileSystemRights  amp  FileSystemRights WriteData  gt 0  amp  amp  filesystemAccessRule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Deny                        Console WriteLine string Format   0  has write access to  1    NtAccountName  path                      else                       Console WriteLine string Format   0  does not have write access to  1    NtAccountName  path                       Console ReadLine      Drop that into a Console app and see if it does what you need

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I faced the same problem  how to verify if I can read write in a particular directory  I ended up with the easy solution to   actually test it  Here is my simple though effective solution    class Program             lt summary gt          Tests if can read files and if any are present          lt  summary gt           lt param name  dirPath  gt  lt  param gt           lt returns gt  lt  returns gt      private genericResponse check canRead string dirPath                try                       IEnumerable lt string gt  files   Directory EnumerateFiles dirPath               if  files Count   Equals 0                   return new genericResponse     status   true  idMsg   genericResponseType NothingToRead                 return new genericResponse     status   true  idMsg   genericResponseType OK                      catch  DirectoryNotFoundException ex                         return new genericResponse     status   false  idMsg   genericResponseType ItemNotFound                       catch  UnauthorizedAccessException ex                         return new genericResponse     status   false  idMsg   genericResponseType CannotRead                                lt summary gt          Tests if can wirte both files or Directory          lt  summary gt           lt param name  dirPath  gt  lt  param gt           lt returns gt  lt  returns gt      private genericResponse check canWrite string dirPath                 try                       string testDir      TESTDIR                 Directory CreateDirectory string Join      dirPath  testDir                 Directory Delete string Join      dirPath  testDir                  string testFile      TESTFILE   txt               try                               TextWriter tw   new StreamWriter string Join      dirPath  testFile   false                   tw WriteLine testFile                   tw Close                    File Delete string Join      dirPath  testFile                     return new genericResponse     status   true  idMsg   genericResponseType OK                              catch  UnauthorizedAccessException ex                                 return new genericResponse     status   false  idMsg   genericResponseType CannotWriteFile                                       catch  UnauthorizedAccessException ex                         return new genericResponse     status   false  idMsg   genericResponseType CannotWriteDir                          public class genericResponse        public bool status   get  set        public genericResponseType idMsg   get  set        public string msg   get  set        public enum genericResponseType        NothingToRead   1      OK   0      CannotRead   -1      CannotWriteDir   -2      CannotWriteFile   -3      ItemNotFound   -4      Hope it helps

User · Answer

You can try following code block to check if the directory is having Write Access  It checks the FileSystemAccessRule   string directoryPath    C   XYZ     folderBrowserDialog SelectedPath  bool isWriteAccess   false  try       AuthorizationRuleCollection collection           Directory GetAccessControl directoryPath               GetAccessRules true  true  typeof System Security Principal NTAccount        foreach  FileSystemAccessRule rule in collection                if  rule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Allow                        isWriteAccess   true              break                    catch  UnauthorizedAccessException ex        isWriteAccess   false    catch  Exception ex        isWriteAccess   false    if   isWriteAccess          handle notifications

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Simply trying to access the file in question isn t necessarily enough  The test will run with the permissions of the user running the program - Which isn t necessarily the user permissions you want to test against

User · Answer

IMHO the only 100  reliable way to test if you can write to a directory is to actually write to it and eventually catch exceptions

User · Answer

You have a potential race condition in your code--what happens if the user has permissions to write to the folder when you check  but before the user actually writes to the folder this permission is withdrawn  The write will throw an exception which you will need to catch and handle  So the initial check is pointless  You might as well just do the write and handle any exceptions  This is the standard pattern for your situation

User · Answer

For example for all users  Builtin Users   this method works fine - enjoy   public static bool HasFolderWritePermission string destDir       if string IsNullOrEmpty destDir      Directory Exists destDir   return false     try            DirectorySecurity security   Directory GetAccessControl destDir         SecurityIdentifier users   new SecurityIdentifier WellKnownSidType BuiltinUsersSid  null         foreach AuthorizationRule rule in security GetAccessRules true  true  typeof SecurityIdentifier                      if rule IdentityReference    users                           FileSystemAccessRule rights     FileSystemAccessRule rule                if rights AccessControlType    AccessControlType Allow                                     if rights FileSystemRights     rights FileSystemRights   FileSystemRights Modify   return true                                             return false            catch               return false

[c#] C# Test if user has write access to a folder

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