ACE Strings

Article
02/22/2023

The security descriptor definition language (SDDL) uses ACE strings in the DACL and SACL components of a security descriptor string.

As shown in the Security Descriptor String Format examples, each ACE in a security descriptor string is enclosed in parentheses. The fields of the ACE are in the following order and are separated by semicolons (;).

Note

Conditional access control entries (ACEs) have a different format than other ACE types. For conditional ACEs, see Security Descriptor Definition Language for Conditional ACEs.

ace_type;ace_flags;rights;object_guid;inherit_object_guid;account_sid;(resource_attribute)

Fields

ace_type

A string that indicates the value of the AceType member of the ACE_HEADER structure. The ACE type string can be one of the following strings defined in Sddl.h:

ACE type string	Constant in Sddl.h	AceType value
"A"	SDDL_ACCESS_ALLOWED	ACCESS_ALLOWED_ACE_TYPE
"D"	SDDL_ACCESS_DENIED	ACCESS_DENIED_ACE_TYPE
"OA"	SDDL_OBJECT_ACCESS_ALLOWED	ACCESS_ALLOWED_OBJECT_ACE_TYPE
"OD"	SDDL_OBJECT_ACCESS_DENIED	ACCESS_DENIED_OBJECT_ACE_TYPE
"AU"	SDDL_AUDIT	SYSTEM_AUDIT_ACE_TYPE
"AL"	SDDL_ALARM	SYSTEM_ALARM_ACE_TYPE
"OU"	SDDL_OBJECT_AUDIT	SYSTEM_AUDIT_OBJECT_ACE_TYPE
"OL"	SDDL_OBJECT_ALARM	SYSTEM_ALARM_OBJECT_ACE_TYPE
"ML"	SDDL_MANDATORY_LABEL	SYSTEM_MANDATORY_LABEL_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"XA"	SDDL_CALLBACK_ACCESS_ALLOWED	ACCESS_ALLOWED_CALLBACK_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"XD"	SDDL_CALLBACK_ACCESS_DENIED	ACCESS_DENIED_CALLBACK_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"RA"	SDDL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTE	SYSTEM_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTE_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"SP"	SDDL_SCOPED_POLICY_ID	SYSTEM_SCOPED_POLICY_ID_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"XU"	SDDL_CALLBACK_AUDIT	SYSTEM_AUDIT_CALLBACK_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"ZA"	SDDL_CALLBACK_OBJECT_ACCESS_ALLOWED	ACCESS_ALLOWED_CALLBACK_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"TL"	SDDL_PROCESS_TRUST_LABEL	SYSTEM_PROCESS_TRUST_LABEL_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"FL"	SDDL_ACCESS_FILTER	SYSTEM_ACCESS_FILTER_ACE_TYPE Windows Server 2016, Windows 10 Version 1607, Windows 10 Version 1511, Windows 10 Version 1507, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.

Note

If ace_type is ACCESS_ALLOWED_OBJECT_ACE_TYPE and neither object_guid nor inherit_object_guid has a GUID specified, then ConvertStringSecurityDescriptorToSecurityDescriptor converts ace_type to ACCESS_ALLOWED_ACE_TYPE.

ace_flags

A string that indicates the value of the AceFlags member of the ACE_HEADER structure. The ACE flags string can be a concatenation of the following strings defined in Sddl.h:

ACE flags string	Constant in Sddl.h	AceFlag value
"CI"	SDDL_CONTAINER_INHERIT	CONTAINER_INHERIT_ACE
"OI"	SDDL_OBJECT_INHERIT	OBJECT_INHERIT_ACE
"NP"	SDDL_NO_PROPAGATE	NO_PROPAGATE_INHERIT_ACE
"IO"	SDDL_INHERIT_ONLY	INHERIT_ONLY_ACE
"ID"	SDDL_INHERITED	INHERITED_ACE
"SA"	SDDL_AUDIT_SUCCESS	SUCCESSFUL_ACCESS_ACE_FLAG
"FA"	SDDL_AUDIT_FAILURE	FAILED_ACCESS_ACE_FLAG
"TP"	SDDL_TRUST_PROTECTED_FILTER	TRUST_PROTECTED_FILTER_ACE_FLAG Windows Server 2016, Windows 10 Version 1607, Windows 10 Version 1511, Windows 10 Version 1507, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"CR"	SDDL_CRITICAL	CRITICAL_ACE_FLAG Windows Server Version 1803, Windows 10 Version 1803, Windows Server Version 1709, Windows 10 Version 1709, Windows 10 Version 1703, Windows Server 2016, Windows 10 Version 1607, Windows 10 Version 1511, Windows 10 Version 1507, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.

rights

A string that indicates the access rights controlled by the ACE. This string can be a hexadecimal string representation of the access rights, such as "0x7800003F", or it can be a concatenation of the following strings.

Generic access rights

Access rights string	Constant in Sddl.h	Access right value
"GA"	SDDL_GENERIC_ALL	GENERIC_ALL
"GR"	SDDL_GENERIC_READ	GENERIC_READ
"GW"	SDDL_GENERIC_WRITE	GENERIC_WRITE
"GX"	SDDL_GENERIC_EXECUTE	GENERIC_EXECUTE

Standard access rights

Access rights string	Constant in Sddl.h	Access right value
"RC"	SDDL_READ_CONTROL	READ_CONTROL
"SD"	SDDL_STANDARD_DELETE	DELETE
"WD"	SDDL_WRITE_DAC	WRITE_DAC
"WO"	SDDL_WRITE_OWNER	WRITE_OWNER

Directory service object access rights

Access rights string	Constant in Sddl.h	Access right value
"RP"	SDDL_READ_PROPERTY	ADS_RIGHT_DS_READ_PROP
"WP"	SDDL_WRITE_PROPERTY	ADS_RIGHT_DS_WRITE_PROP
"CC"	SDDL_CREATE_CHILD	ADS_RIGHT_DS_CREATE_CHILD
"DC"	SDDL_DELETE_CHILD	ADS_RIGHT_DS_DELETE_CHILD
"LC"	SDDL_LIST_CHILDREN	ADS_RIGHT_ACTRL_DS_LIST
"SW"	SDDL_SELF_WRITE	ADS_RIGHT_DS_SELF
"LO"	SDDL_LIST_OBJECT	ADS_RIGHT_DS_LIST_OBJECT
"DT"	SDDL_DELETE_TREE	ADS_RIGHT_DS_DELETE_TREE
"CR"	SDDL_CONTROL_ACCESS	ADS_RIGHT_DS_CONTROL_ACCESS

File access rights

Access rights string	Constant in Sddl.h	Access right value
"FA"	SDDL_FILE_ALL	FILE_GENERIC_ALL
"FR"	SDDL_FILE_READ	FILE_GENERIC_READ
"FW"	SDDL_FILE_WRITE	FILE_GENERIC_WRITE
"FX"	SDDL_FILE_EXECUTE	FILE_GENERIC_EXECUTE

Registry key access rights

Access rights string	Constant in Sddl.h	Access right value
"KA"	SDDL_KEY_ALL	KEY_ALL_ACCESS
"KR"	SDDL_KEY_READ	KEY_READ
"KW"	SDDL_KEY_WRITE	KEY_WRITE
"KX"	SDDL_KEY_EXECUTE	KEY_EXECUTE

Mandatory label rights

Access rights string	Constant in Sddl.h	Access right value
"NR"	SDDL_NO_READ_UP	SYSTEM_MANDATORY_LABEL_NO_READ_UP Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"NW"	SDDL_NO_WRITE_UP	SYSTEM_MANDATORY_LABEL_NO_WRITE_UP Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.
"NX"	SDDL_NO_EXECUTE_UP	SYSTEM_MANDATORY_LABEL_NO_EXECUTE_UP Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Not available.

object_guid

A string representation of a GUID that indicates the value of the ObjectType member of an object-specific ACE structure, such as ACCESS_ALLOWED_OBJECT_ACE. The GUID string uses the format returned by the UuidToString function.

The following table lists some commonly used object GUIDs:

Rights and GUID	Permission
CR;ab721a53-1e2f-11d0-9819-00aa0040529b	Change password
CR;00299570-246d-11d0-a768-00aa006e0529	Reset password

inherit_object_guid

A string representation of a GUID that indicates the value of the InheritedObjectType member of an object-specific ACE structure. The GUID string uses the UuidToString format.

account_sid

SID string that identifies the trustee of the ACE.

resource_attribute

[OPTIONAL] The resource_attribute is only for resource ACEs and is optional. A string that indicates the data type. The resource attribute ace data type can be one of the following data types defined in Sddl.h.

The "#" sign is synonymous with "0" in resource attributes. For example, D:AI(XA;OICI;FA;;;WD;(OctetStringType==#1#2#3##)) is equivalent to and interpreted as D:AI(XA;OICI;FA;;;WD;(OctetStringType==#01020300)).

Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003: Resource attributes are not available.

Resource attribute ace data type string	Constant in Sddl.h	Data type
"TI"	SDDL_INT	Signed integer
"TU"	SDDL_UINT	Unsigned integer
"TS"	SDDL_WSTRING	Wide string
"TD"	SDDL_SID	SID
"TX"	SDDL_BLOB	Octet string
"TB"	SDDL_BOOLEAN	Boolean

The following example shows an ACE string for an access-allowed ACE. It is not an object-specific ACE, so it has no information in the object_guid and inherit_object_guid fields. The ace_flags field is also empty, which indicates that none of the ACE flags are set.

(A;;RPWPCCDCLCSWRCWDWOGA;;;S-1-1-0)

The ACE string shown above describes the following ACE information.

AceType:       0x00 (ACCESS_ALLOWED_ACE_TYPE)
AceFlags:      0x00
Access Mask:   0x100e003f
                    READ_CONTROL
                    WRITE_DAC
                    WRITE_OWNER
                    GENERIC_ALL
                    Other access rights(0x0000003f)
Ace Sid      : (S-1-1-0)

The following example shows a file classified with resource claims for Windows and Structured Query Language (SQL) with Secrecy set to High Business Impact.

(RA;CI;;;;S-1-1-0; ("Project",TS,0,"Windows","SQL")) 
(RA;CI;;;;S-1-1-0; ("Secrecy",TU,0,3))

The ACE string shown above describes the following ACE information.

AceType:       0x12 (SYSTEM_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTE_ACE_TYPE)
AceFlags:      0x1  (SDDL_CONTAINER_INHERIT)
Access Mask:   0x0
Ace Sid      : (S-1-1-0)
Resource Attributes: Project has the strings Windows and SQL, Secrecy has the unsigned int value of 3

For more information, see Security Descriptor String Format and SID Strings. For conditional ACEs, see Security Descriptor Definition Language for Conditional ACEs.

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