C# Test if user has write access to a folder

Question

I need to test if a user can write to a folder before actually attempting to do so.

I've implemented the following method (in C# 2.0) that attempts to retrieve the security permissions for the folder using Directory.GetAccessControl() method.

private bool hasWriteAccessToFolder(string folderPath)
{
    try
    {
        // Attempt to get a list of security permissions from the folder. 
        // This will raise an exception if the path is read only or do not have access to view the permissions. 
        System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity ds = Directory.GetAccessControl(folderPath);
        return true;
    }
    catch (UnauthorizedAccessException)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

When I was googling how to test for write access nothing like this came up and it appeared very complicated to actually test permissions in Windows. I am concerned that I am over-simplifying things and that this method is not robust, although it does seem to work.

Will my method to test if the current user has write access work correctly?

Answer 1

I appreciate that this is a little late in the day for this post, but you might find this bit of code useful.

string path = @"c:\temp";
string NtAccountName = @"MyDomain\MyUserOrGroup";

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
DirectorySecurity acl = di.GetAccessControl(AccessControlSections.All);
AuthorizationRuleCollection rules = acl.GetAccessRules(true, true, typeof(NTAccount));

//Go through the rules returned from the DirectorySecurity
foreach (AuthorizationRule rule in rules)
{
    //If we find one that matches the identity we are looking for
    if (rule.IdentityReference.Value.Equals(NtAccountName,StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
    {
        var filesystemAccessRule = (FileSystemAccessRule)rule;

        //Cast to a FileSystemAccessRule to check for access rights
        if ((filesystemAccessRule.FileSystemRights & FileSystemRights.WriteData)>0 && filesystemAccessRule.AccessControlType != AccessControlType.Deny)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} has write access to {1}", NtAccountName, path));
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} does not have write access to {1}", NtAccountName, path));
        }
    }
}

Console.ReadLine();

Drop that into a Console app and see if it does what you need.