Security Components

Windows security relies on several fundamental elements. It's important to understand how each of these elements are derived and how they fit together. This gives you the basis for evaluating practical security options. This section covers these elements:

  • Access tokens

  • SIDs

  • Security descriptors

  • Access control lists

  • Passwords

Access Tokens

The information in an access token essentially defines two P's:

  • Permissions. The access token contains all necessary information for the system to evaluate which resources a user can touch and what the user can do with those resources.

  • Privileges. The access token contains a list of rights that determine which core system functions the user can call upon. For instance, a user with SeBackupPrivilege ...

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