Access Denied When Trying to Add ACL Entries

 Last reviewed: January 20, 1998
Article ID: Q157475
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51 and 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51 and 4.0

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

Normally you can modify the security of an object where you have the Change Permissions right or when you own the object. However, after you apply Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or the Windows NT 3.51 SEC-FIX, you may receive the following error message when you attempt to add entries to Access Control Lists (ACL): 

   Access Denied
NOTE: You can successfully add entries with the Windows NT Cacls.exe utility.

For more information on SEC-FIX, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q143474
   TITLE     : Restricting Information Available to Anonymous Logon Users

CAUSE

You receive the above error message because Windows NT ACL editor cannot determine the product type of the server.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it.

  1. Run Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

  2. Go to the following key: 

          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
      SecurePipeServers\winreg\AllowedPaths

    NOTE: The above registry key is one path; it has been wrapped for readability.

  3. Click Machine, and then on the Edit menu, click Multi String.

  4. Add the following: 

          System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions

  5. Click OK and then quit Registry Editor.

  6. Shut down and restart Windows NT.

You can also resolve this problem by granting the user (or a group the user is a member of) access to the winreg key. For more information on the winreg key, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q155363
   TITLE     : How To Regulate Network Access to the Windows NT Registry

MORE INFORMATION

The ACL editor must know what entries to place into the list of available domains. Domain controllers (ProductType LanManNT) do not have their own machine name in the list of domains, while member servers and Windows NT workstations (ServerNT and Winnt) do. The ACL editor tries to find out about the domain role of the remote server by accessing the ProductType value from the following registry key: 

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions
SEC-FIX restricts registry access to the users listed in the ACL for the following registry key: 

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
   \SecurePipeServers\winreg
If you do not have access to this key, you are only permitted to access the registry keys listed in the AllowedPaths\Machine value in the winreg key. If the ProductOptions key is not listed under AllowedPaths\Machine, users trying to add ACLs on remote servers might receive an Access Denied error message.

Additional query words: 4.00
Keywords : ntsecurity NTSrvWkst kbenv
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt

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Last reviewed: January 20, 1998
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