Check Effective Permissions

Introduction

The “Add Principal” function allows you to specifically analyze the effective access rights that a particular user or group has to files and folders. All relevant factors are automatically considered – from group memberships and share permissions to inherited and explicit NTFS permissions.

Add Users to the Analysis

1. Open an existing analysis in the NTFS Analysis section.
2. Click the “Add Principal” button.
3. Select the desired user or group from Active Directory or from local groups.
4. After selection, the user is added to the analysis – the matrix is extended to show this principal’s effective permissions.

Placeholder Screenshot: Add Principal
![Screenshot: Add User to Analysis](<Screenshot_Prinzipal_Hinzufuegen.png>)

What Does the Effective Permission Show?

A user’s effective rights result from the interaction of the following layers:

• Share permissions on the network share
• Inherited NTFS permissions from parent folders
• Direct (explicit) NTFS permissions on the target folder
• Group memberships (including nested groups)
• Filter conditions (if active)

Docusnap365 automatically calculates this combination and only displays the effective rights of the selected user.

Placeholder Screenshot: Effective Rights of a User
![Screenshot: Effective Rights Matrix](<Screenshot_Effektive_Rechte.png>)

Why This Matters

This analysis provides a clear answer to the question:

“Does user X have access to directory Y – and if so, with what permissions?”

It also detects whether a user obtains rights via group memberships that they should not have individually. This makes the feature especially useful for:

• Audits and compliance checks
• GDPR information requests
• Permission clean-ups

Special Features

• Groups are resolved recursively – nested groups are fully taken into account.
• Only effective rights are displayed – non-existent but theoretically inheritable rights are not shown.
• Multiple principals can be analyzed and compared simultaneously.