Five Practices for Securing File Server Access
Summary
Sponsored guidance recommends using dedicated and nested permission groups, relying on NTFS permissions for granular access control, preserving inheritance, and periodically reviewing privileges to secure file servers.
Key points
- Assign directory access through dedicated security groups rather than directly to individual users, so permissions are easier to track.
- Use the AGDLP model to connect role-based global groups to resource-specific permission groups.
- Set share permissions broadly and use NTFS permissions for more granular access control; when permissions interact, the more restrictive level applies.
- Keep directory structures clean and rely on permission inheritance instead of setting explicit permissions deep in the folder tree.
- Apply least privilege and periodically review access to remove permissions users no longer need.
- The sponsored article promotes Tenfold Software as a platform for automating provisioning, group management, and access reviews.
Article Details
- Defense Focus
- Govern file-server access through least privilege, structured group-based permissions, inheritance, and periodic access reviews.
- Detection Methods
- Review user and group memberships alongside directory permissions to identify who has access and why.
- Periodically audit access against current job responsibilities and revoke permissions that are no longer needed.
- Inspect folder permissions for direct user assignments and permissions that override inheritance.
- Data Sources
- File-server directory and folder permissions
- User and security-group memberships
- Share and NTFS permissions
- Active Directory resources
- Access-review and event-auditing information
- Platforms
- File servers
- Active Directory
- tenfold
- Defensive Actions
- Grant access through dedicated, single-purpose security groups rather than direct user permissions.
- Use the AGDLP model or a similar nested-group structure to map roles to resource permissions.
- Keep share permissions relatively broad and use NTFS permissions for granular access control.
- Manage permissions at higher directory levels and preserve inheritance where practical.
- Apply least privilege and periodically review access as roles and responsibilities change.
- Use a centralized governance platform to track permissions and manage access-review policies.
Vendors
Products
Microsoft Active DirectoryFollowing AGDLP or similar models allows you to implement a form of role-based access control for file server and Active Directory resources, streamlining access governance significantly.NTFS#3: Set share permissions leniently, use NTFS to control accesstenfoldSponsored by Tenfold Software