Checking for directory and file write permissions in NET

Question

In my  NET 2 0 application  I need to check if sufficient permissions exist to create and write to files to a directory  To this end  I have the following function that attempts to create a file and write a single byte to it  deleting itself afterwards to test that permissions do exist   I figured the best way to check was to actually try and do it  catching any exceptions that occur  I m not particularly happy about the general Exception catch though  so is there a better or perhaps a more accepted way of doing this   private const string TEMP FILE      tempFile tmp         lt summary gt      Checks the ability to create and write to a file in the supplied directory       lt  summary gt       lt param name  directory  gt String representing the directory path to check  lt  param gt       lt returns gt True if successful  otherwise false  lt  returns gt  private static bool CheckDirectoryAccess string directory        bool success   false      string fullPath   directory   TEMP FILE       if  Directory Exists directory                 try                       using  FileStream fs   new FileStream fullPath  FileMode CreateNew                                                               FileAccess Write                                 fs WriteByte 0xff                              if  File Exists fullPath                                 File Delete fullPath                   success   true                                  catch  Exception                        success   false

User · Answer

Since the static method  GetAccessControl  seems to be missing from the present version of  Net core Standard I had to modify  Bryce Wagner s answer  I went ahead and used more modern syntax    public static class PermissionHelper     public static bool  CurrentUserHasWritePermission string filePath          gt  new WindowsPrincipal WindowsIdentity GetCurrent             SelectWritePermissions filePath           FirstOrDefault        private static IEnumerable lt bool  gt  SelectWritePermissions this WindowsPrincipal user  string filePath         gt  from rule in filePath                      GetFileSystemSecurity                        GetAccessRules true  true  typeof NTAccount                        Cast lt FileSystemAccessRule gt            let right   user HasRightSafe rule          where right HasValue            Deny takes precedence over allow         orderby right Value    false descending         select right      private static bool  HasRightSafe this WindowsPrincipal user  FileSystemAccessRule rule           try                return user HasRight rule               catch                return null                private static bool  HasRight this WindowsPrincipal user FileSystemAccessRule rule          gt  rule switch                  FileSystemRights  FileSystemRights fileSystemRights   when  fileSystemRights  amp                                                                         FileSystemRights WriteData   FileSystemRights Write      0   gt  null            IdentityReference    Value  string value     when value StartsWith  S-1-    amp  amp                                                               user IsInRole new SecurityIdentifier rule IdentityReference Value     gt  null            IdentityReference    Value  string value     when value StartsWith  S-1-      false  amp  amp                                                               user IsInRole rule IdentityReference Value    gt  null            AccessControlType  AccessControlType Deny     gt  false            AccessControlType  AccessControlType Allow     gt  true              gt  null             private static FileSystemSecurity GetFileSystemSecurity this string filePath        gt  new FileInfo filePath  switch                Exists  true   fileInfo   gt  fileInfo GetAccessControl             Exists  false   fileInfo   gt   FileSystemSecurity fileInfo Directory GetAccessControl               gt  throw new Exception   Check the file path   filePath   something s wrong with it

User · Answer

Deny takes precedence over Allow  Local rules take precedence over inherited rules  I have seen many solutions  including some answers shown here   but none of them takes into account whether rules are inherited or not  Therefore I suggest the following approach that considers rule inheritance  neatly wrapped into a class    public class CurrentUserSecurity       WindowsIdentity  currentUser      WindowsPrincipal  currentPrincipal       public CurrentUserSecurity                  currentUser   WindowsIdentity GetCurrent             currentPrincipal   new WindowsPrincipal  currentUser              public bool HasAccess DirectoryInfo directory  FileSystemRights right                   Get the collection of authorization rules that apply to the directory          AuthorizationRuleCollection acl   directory GetAccessControl                GetAccessRules true  true  typeof SecurityIdentifier            return HasFileOrDirectoryAccess right  acl              public bool HasAccess FileInfo file  FileSystemRights right                   Get the collection of authorization rules that apply to the file          AuthorizationRuleCollection acl   file GetAccessControl                GetAccessRules true  true  typeof SecurityIdentifier            return HasFileOrDirectoryAccess right  acl              private bool HasFileOrDirectoryAccess FileSystemRights right                                            AuthorizationRuleCollection acl                bool allow   false          bool inheritedAllow   false          bool inheritedDeny   false           for  int i   0  i  lt  acl Count  i                  var currentRule    FileSystemAccessRule acl i                  If the current rule applies to the current user              if   currentUser User Equals currentRule IdentityReference                      currentPrincipal IsInRole                                   SecurityIdentifier currentRule IdentityReference                      if  currentRule AccessControlType Equals AccessControlType Deny                         if   currentRule FileSystemRights  amp  right     right                            if  currentRule IsInherited                                inheritedDeny   true                            else      Non inherited  deny  takes overall precedence                              return false                                                                    else if  currentRule AccessControlType                                                    Equals AccessControlType Allow                         if   currentRule FileSystemRights  amp  right     right                            if  currentRule IsInherited                                inheritedAllow   true                            else                               allow   true                                                                                                     if  allow       Non inherited  allow  takes precedence over inherited rules              return true                    return inheritedAllow  amp  amp   inheritedDeny            However  I made the experience that this does not always work on remote computers as you will not always have the right to query the file access rights there  The solution in that case is to try  possibly even by just trying to create a temporary file  if you need to know the access right before working with the  real  files

User · Answer

The accepted answer by Kev to this question doesn t actually give any code  it just points to other resources that I don t have access to   So here s my best attempt at the function   It actually checks that the permission it s looking at is a  Write  permission and that the current user belongs to the appropriate group   It might not be complete with regard to network paths or whatever  but it s good enough for my purpose  checking local configuration files under  Program Files  for writability   using System Security Principal  using System Security AccessControl   private static bool HasWritePermission string FilePath        try               FileSystemSecurity security          if  File Exists FilePath                         security   File GetAccessControl FilePath                     else                       security   Directory GetAccessControl Path GetDirectoryName FilePath                      var rules   security GetAccessRules true  true  typeof NTAccount             var currentuser   new WindowsPrincipal WindowsIdentity GetCurrent             bool result   false          foreach  FileSystemAccessRule rule in rules                        if  0     rule FileSystemRights  amp                   FileSystemRights WriteData   FileSystemRights Write                                  continue                             if  rule IdentityReference Value StartsWith  S-1-                                  var sid   new SecurityIdentifier rule IdentityReference Value                   if   currentuser IsInRole sid                                         continue                                              else                               if   currentuser IsInRole rule IdentityReference Value                                         continue                                               if  rule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Deny                  return false              if  rule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Allow                  result   true                    return result            catch               return false

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private static void GrantAccess string file                        bool exists   System IO Directory Exists file               if   exists                                DirectoryInfo di   System IO Directory CreateDirectory file                   Console WriteLine  The Folder is created Sucessfully                              else                               Console WriteLine  The Folder already exists                              DirectoryInfo dInfo   new DirectoryInfo file               DirectorySecurity dSecurity   dInfo GetAccessControl                dSecurity AddAccessRule new FileSystemAccessRule new SecurityIdentifier WellKnownSidType WorldSid  null   FileSystemRights FullControl  InheritanceFlags ObjectInherit   InheritanceFlags ContainerInherit  PropagationFlags NoPropagateInherit  AccessControlType Allow                dInfo SetAccessControl dSecurity

User · Answer

Directory GetAccessControl path  does what you are asking for   public static bool HasWritePermissionOnDir string path        var writeAllow   false      var writeDeny   false      var accessControlList   Directory GetAccessControl path       if  accessControlList    null          return false      var accessRules   accessControlList GetAccessRules true  true                                   typeof System Security Principal SecurityIdentifier        if  accessRules   null          return false       foreach  FileSystemAccessRule rule in accessRules                if   FileSystemRights Write  amp  rule FileSystemRights     FileSystemRights Write               continue           if  rule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Allow              writeAllow   true          else if  rule AccessControlType    AccessControlType Deny              writeDeny   true             return writeAllow  amp  amp   writeDeny       FileSystemRights Write  amp  rights     FileSystemRights Write is using something called  Flags  btw which if you don t know what it is you should really read up on

User · Answer

IMO  you need to work with such directories as usual  but instead of checking permissions before use  provide the correct way to handle UnauthorizedAccessException and react accordingly  This method is easier and much less error prone

User · Answer

Try working with this C  snippet I just crafted   using System  using System IO  using System Security AccessControl  using System Security Principal   namespace ConsoleApplication1       class Program               static void Main string   args                        string directory     C  downloads                DirectoryInfo di   new DirectoryInfo directory                DirectorySecurity ds   di GetAccessControl                 foreach  AccessRule rule in ds GetAccessRules true  true  typeof NTAccount                                  Console WriteLine  Identity    0   Access    1                                   rule IdentityReference Value  rule AccessControlType                                     And here s a reference you could also look at  My code might give you an idea as to how you could check for permissions before attempting to write to a directory

User · Answer

The answers by Richard and Jason are sort of in the right direction  However what you should be doing is computing the effective permissions for the user identity running your code  None of the examples above correctly account for group membership for example   I m pretty sure Keith Brown had some code to do this in his wiki version  offline at this time  of The  NET Developers Guide to Windows Security  This is also discussed in reasonable detail in his Programming Windows Security book   Computing effective permissions is not for the faint hearted and your code to attempt creating a file and catching the security exception thrown is probably the path of least resistance

User · Answer

according to this link  http   www authorcode com how-to-check-file-permission-to-write-in-c   it s easier to use existing class SecurityManager  string FileLocation     C  test txt   FileIOPermission writePermission   new FileIOPermission FileIOPermissionAccess Write  FileLocation   if  SecurityManager IsGranted writePermission          you have permission   else       permission is required      but it seems it s been obsoleted  it is suggested to use PermissionSet instead    Obsolete  IsGranted is obsolete and will be removed in a future release of the  NET Framework   Please use the PermissionSet property of either AppDomain or Assembly instead

[c#] Checking for directory and file write permissions in .NET

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