Elementary Information Security, 3rd Edition

▶ 4.4 Microsoft Windows ACLs

ACLs first appeared in Windows operating systems with the introduction of Windows NT in 1993. The ACLs evolved over subsequent releases of “professional” versions of Windows, including Windows 10. The basic file sharing introduced in Section 4.1.1 uses the ACL system through a simplified interface. All changes made through basic file sharing are reflected in the ACLs.

Windows has produced a particularly effective ACL implementation by providing flexible and sophisticated inheritance. In most cases, the file in a folder inherits access rights cleanly and simply from the enclosing directory. Files and folders automatically inherit changes made to an enclosing folder’s access rights. This makes it easier to manage ...