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Monitor the central access policies associated with files and folders

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This article for IT professionals describes how to monitor changes to the central access policies that are associated with files and folders when you're using advanced security auditing options to monitor dynamic access control objects.

This security audit policy and the event that it records are generated when the central access policy that's associated with a file or folder is changed. This security audit policy is useful when an administrator wants to monitor potential changes on some, but not all, files and folders on a file server.

For information about monitoring potential central access policy changes for an entire file server, see Monitor the central access policies that apply on a file server.

Use the following procedures to configure settings to monitor central access policies that are associated with files. These procedures assume that you have configured and deployed Dynamic Access Control in your network. For more information about how to configure and deploy Dynamic Access Control, see Dynamic Access Control: Scenario Overview.

Note

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings.

To configure settings to monitor central access policies associated with files or folders

  1. Sign in to your domain controller by using domain administrator credentials.
  2. In Server Manager, point to Tools, and then select Group Policy Management.
  3. In the console tree, right-click the flexible access Group Policy Object, and then select Edit.
  4. Double-click Computer Configuration, double-click Security Settings, double-click Advanced Audit Policy Configuration, double-click Policy Change, and then double-click Audit Authorization Policy Change.
  5. Select the Configure the following audit events check box, select the Success check box (and the Failure check box, if desired), and then select OK.
  6. Turn on auditing for a file or folder as described in the following procedure.

To turn on auditing for a file or folder

  1. Sign in as a member of the local administrator's group on the computer that contains the files or folders that you want to audit.

  2. Right-click the file or folder, select Properties, and then select the Security tab.

  3. Select Advanced, select the Auditing tab, and then select Continue.

    If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then select Yes.

  4. Select Add, select Select a principal, type a user name or group name in the format contoso\user1, and then select OK.

  5. In the Auditing Entry for dialog box, select the permissions that you want to audit, such as Full Control or Delete.

  6. To complete the configuration of the object SACL, select OK four times.

  7. Open a File Explorer window, and then select or create a file or folder to audit.

  8. Open an elevated command prompt, and then run the following command:

    gpupdate /force

After you configure settings to monitor changes to the central access policies that are associated with files and folders, verify that the changes are being monitored.

To verify that changes to central access policies associated with files and folders are monitored

  1. Sign in as a member of the local administrator's group on the computer that contains the files or folders that you want to audit.

  2. Open a File Explorer window, and then select the file or folder that you configured for auditing in the previous procedure.

  3. Right-click the file or folder, select Properties, select the Security tab, and then select Advanced.

  4. Select the Central Policy tab, select Change, select a different central access policy (if one is available) or select No Central Access Policy, and then select OK twice.

    Note

    You must select a setting that is different than your original setting to generate the audit event.

  5. In Server Manager, select Tools, and then select Event Viewer.

  6. Expand Windows Logs, and then select Security.

  7. Look for event 4913, which is generated when the central access policy that's associated with a file or folder changes. This event includes the security identifiers (SIDs) of the old and new central access policies.