Microsoft KB Archive/111541

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INFO: New Owner in Take-Ownership Operation

Q111541



The information in this article applies to:


  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), used with:
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows NT, versions 3.1, 3.5
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000





SUMMARY

When ownership of a file is taken, the user performing the operation becomes the new owner. The exception to this rule is when the user is a member of the "Administrators" group. In this situation, the ownership of the file is assigned to the Administrators group.

The reasoning for this behavior is that the administrators on a particular system work together. When one administrator takes ownership of a file, the others should also receive access.



MORE INFORMATION

When a take-ownership operation is performed, the system assigns the new owner SID based on the TOKEN_OWNER field of the user's access token.

When a user logs on to a Windows NT system, the logon process builds an access token to represent the user. Normally the TOKEN_OWNER field in the access token is set equal to TOKEN_USER (the user's SID). However, when the user is a member of the Administrators group, the system sets the TOKEN_OWNER field to the Administrators SID.

Although Windows NT does not provide a user interface for changing the TOKEN_OWNER field in the user's access token, it is possible to programatically change this value via the SetTokenInformation() Win32 API (application programming interface).

Additional query words: 3.10 3.50

Keywords : kbprogramming kbKernBase kbOSWin2000 kbSecurity kbDSupport kbGrpDSKernBase
Issue type : kbinfo
Technology : kbAudDeveloper kbWin32sSearch kbWin32API


Last Reviewed: October 27, 2000
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