The access and audit cmdlets wrote the owner of an item back with the
entries they changed. For a DACL without the auto-inherit flag, Windows
returns the owner and the group even when only the DACL is read, and the
cmdlets wrote every section that the descriptor held. Without the Restore
privilege, or on a file server that refuses the owner, the write failed
with error 1307 (#34).
- Add-NTFSAccess, Clear-NTFSAccess, Add-NTFSAudit, and Clear-NTFSAudit
read only the DACL or the SACL. FileSystemSecurity2.Write(),
Remove-NTFSAccess, and Remove-NTFSAudit write only the sections they
read, which also fixes the access inheritance cmdlets.
- Read together with the SACL, the inherited entries of such a DACL lose
their inherited flag when the parent folder has no SACL, and the
cmdlets stored them as explicit copies. Get-NTFSSecurityDescriptor now
reads the DACL in a separate call.
- Set-NTFSSecurityDescriptor writes only the sections that changed since
they were read; an unchanged descriptor writes nothing (maintainer
decision of 2026-10-06).
- Clear-NTFSAudit writes nothing for an item without a SACL, and reports
an error without the Security privilege (maintainer decision).
The regression tests failed before and pass after the fix in Windows
PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7, elevated and as a basic user.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: AI Assistant <ai@example.com>
Security review of this branch, Major findings:
- M4: Get-NTFSAudit took ownership of an item whose SACL it couldn't
read. Ownership grants no access to the SACL, so the retry always
failed, and it left the owner changed. The cmdlet now writes a
ReadSecurityError with the category PermissionDenied, as Get-NTFSOwner
does since defect 9; the page says so.
- M1: Remove-TestSandbox reset the ACLs recursively before it removed the
links. Measured: icacls /reset /T did not follow the junction (the
target's explicit entry stayed), but the links now go first anyway; a
folder that denies listing gets a reset without /T. New test: the ACL
of a junction target stays unchanged.
- m4: Assert-TestSandboxPath now rejects a path below a link, which can
point outside the sandbox (new test, failed before).
- M5: the Inherits column reads one ACL per displayed item; the
Get-ChildItem2 page names the cost and how to avoid it.
- M2: the comment of the CI-only Get-NTFSAudit repeat test states what it
guards; Access.Tests.ps1 guards the same loop fix without elevation.
- M3, the stale hash of Get-FileHash2, is fixed on ai/defects-c.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: AI Assistant <ai@example.com>
Tests/TestHelpers.psm1 lets a test that changes files, links, ACLs,
owners, audit entries, or inheritance work in its own sandbox below
$env:TEMP\NTFSSecurity.Tests:
- New-TestSandbox creates the folder; Assert-TestSandboxPath throws
unless every target, relative ones resolved against the location, is
inside it.
- Remove-TestSandbox removes the links first without following them
(Windows PowerShell 5.1 follows directory links when it removes a
folder), resets ACL changes, and deletes the folder.
- Test-IsElevated and Test-PrivilegeHeld decide which tests can run; CI
runners are elevated, the workstation isn't.
Tests/TestHelpers.Tests.ps1 (14 tests) covers the helpers. CI runs every
*.Tests.ps1 file in Tests, so new test files need no workflow change.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: AI Assistant <ai@example.com>
Raimund Andree