Checking for directory and file write permissions in .NET

user_57220 0
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In my .NET 2.0 application, I need to check if sufficient permissions exist to create and write to files to a directory. To this end, I have the following function that attempts to create a file and write a single byte to it, deleting itself afterwards to test that permissions do exist.

I figured the best way to check was to actually try and do it, catching any exceptions that occur. I'm not particularly happy about the general Exception catch though, so is there a better or perhaps a more accepted way of doing this?

private const string TEMP_FILE = "\\tempFile.tmp";

/// <summary>
/// Checks the ability to create and write to a file in the supplied directory.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="directory">String representing the directory path to check.</param>
/// <returns>True if successful; otherwise false.</returns>
private static bool CheckDirectoryAccess(string directory)
{
    bool success = false;
    string fullPath = directory + TEMP_FILE;

    if (Directory.Exists(directory))
    {
        try
        {
            using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(fullPath, FileMode.CreateNew, 
                                                            FileAccess.Write))
            {
                fs.WriteByte(0xff);
            }

            if (File.Exists(fullPath))
            {
                File.Delete(fullPath);
                success = true;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            success = false;
        }
    }
file-permissions directory winforms .net c#
9 Answers

Since the static method 'GetAccessControl' seems to be missing from the present version of .Net core/Standard I had to modify @Bryce Wagner's answer (I went ahead and used more modern syntax):

public static class PermissionHelper
{
  public static bool? CurrentUserHasWritePermission(string filePath)

     => new WindowsPrincipal(WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent())
        .SelectWritePermissions(filePath)
        .FirstOrDefault();


  private static IEnumerable<bool?> SelectWritePermissions(this WindowsPrincipal user, string filePath)
     => from rule in filePath
                    .GetFileSystemSecurity()
                    .GetAccessRules(true, true, typeof(NTAccount))
                    .Cast<FileSystemAccessRule>()
        let right = user.HasRightSafe(rule)
        where right.HasValue
        // Deny takes precedence over allow
        orderby right.Value == false descending
        select right;


  private static bool? HasRightSafe(this WindowsPrincipal user, FileSystemAccessRule rule)
  {
     try
     {
        return user.HasRight(rule);
     }
     catch
     {
        return null;
     }
  }

  private static bool? HasRight(this WindowsPrincipal user,FileSystemAccessRule rule )
     => rule switch
     {
        { FileSystemRights: FileSystemRights fileSystemRights } when (fileSystemRights &
                                                                      (FileSystemRights.WriteData | FileSystemRights.Write)) == 0 => null,
        { IdentityReference: { Value: string value } } when value.StartsWith("S-1-") &&
                                                            !user.IsInRole(new SecurityIdentifier(rule.IdentityReference.Value)) => null,
        { IdentityReference: { Value: string value } } when value.StartsWith("S-1-") == false &&
                                                            !user.IsInRole(rule.IdentityReference.Value) => null,
        { AccessControlType: AccessControlType.Deny } => false,
        { AccessControlType: AccessControlType.Allow } => true,
        _ => null
     };


  private static FileSystemSecurity GetFileSystemSecurity(this string filePath)
    => new FileInfo(filePath) switch
    {
       { Exists: true } fileInfo => fileInfo.GetAccessControl(),
       { Exists: false } fileInfo => (FileSystemSecurity)fileInfo.Directory.GetAccessControl(),
       _ => throw new Exception($"Check the file path, {filePath}: something's wrong with it.")
    };
}
user_128052570
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