Copying file security permissions

Question

I'm copying a file from folder A to folder B and then trying to copy the file permissions. Here are the basic steps I'm using:

1. CopyFile(source, target)
2. GetNamedSecurityInfo(source, GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION | DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION)
3. Print source SD using ConvertSecurityDescriptorToStringSecurityDescriptor
4. SetNamedSecurityInfo(target, GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION | DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION)
5. GetNamedSecurityInfo(target, GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION | DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION)
6. Print target SD using ConvertSecurityDescriptorToStringSecurityDescriptor

At #3 I get this SD:

G:S-1-5-21-1454471165-1482476501-839522115-513D:AI(A;ID;0x1200a9;;;BU)(A;ID;0x1301bf;;;PU)(A;ID;FA;;;BA)(A;ID;FA;;;SY)(A;ID;FA;;;S-1-5-21-1454471165-1482476501-839522115-1004)

At #6 I get

G:S-1-5-21-1454471165-1482476501-839522115-513D:AI(A;ID;0x1301bf;;;PU)(A;ID;FA;;;BA)(A;ID;FA;;;SY)

The call to SetNamedSecurityInfo returns ERROR_SUCCESS, yet the results are the source and target file do not have the same SDs. Why is that? What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

SHFileOperation can copy files together with their security attributes, but from your other question I see you're concerned that this won't work within a service. Maybe the following newsgroup discussions will provide some useful information for you:

• Copy NTFS files with security
• How to copy a disk file or directory with ALL attributes?
• Copying files with security attributes

Answer 2

Robocopy from the server tools kit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en
Will copy all NTFS settigs and ACLs, it's also more robust and reliable than copy/xcopy