Allow user to access and see only certain subfolders on network shared drives

Question

Hi Guys,

I am currently have a file server that running Windows Server 2016 Storage Server.

I have a folder that being setup as below:

Sharing_Folder
Sub_Folder1
Many_Sub_Folders2

I have shared the "Sharing_Folder" for "Everyone" with read only access. so any user could map the "Sharing Folder". Then, once users are mapped with "Sharing_Folder", they should be able to see and traverse from Sharing_folder into the "Sub_Folder1" folders as well (also read only access). These permission are inherited from "Sharing_Folder" as well. But, when come into "Many_Sub_Folder2", i would like that users that being granted access to any specific folders to see only the folder that they have access to. Meaning that though there are many "Many_Sub_Folder2", user can only see the folders that they have access to.

Currently, i tried to disable inheritance and given access to only specific users, but "Everyone" is still able to see those Sub_Folders2 even though they don't have access to.

Could you help to advise whether it is possible to achieve this scenario?

Thanks
H

Answer 1

Hi，
This is what i did in my environment.
Disable the inheritance, and assign the permission on the files and folders within the shared folder depends on your requirement.

Best Regards,

Answer 2

Hi,
Based on my understanding , you want to display only the files and folders that a user has permissions to access.
Access-based enumeration can be used to do this.
Windows Explorer enables access-based enumeration on shared folders by default

However, access-based enumeration is not enabled by default (can be enabled by using Share and Storage Management)on the following types of shared folders:
Shared folders that are created with Share and Storage Management, Advanced Sharing in Windows Explorer, or the net share command
Volumes
Folders or volumes that are shared for administrative purposes, such as C$ and ADMIN$
For more details and steps to do this you can refer to :
Access-based Enumeration

My test :
I created a folder and shared this folder by following way,(not advanced sharing)

There are 2 folders in the shared folder 1 and 2.

User MM1 only have read permission on folder 1 , then Windows Explorer displays only folder 1 as following

Answer 3

Hi,
To achieve your goal, we need to enable the ABE,

For more information , please refer to :
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/dd772681(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

Answer 4

You can use User Groups and assign different folders different permissions assigned to different user groups. Users in a specific User Group would have the permissions to access those directories which allow that User Group access.

Answer 5

Hey, H

When you give access to a parent folder, the children folder of that parent are also given access to. If you want to limit the access to subfolders, you will need to revoke access from the parent folder and give only access to the subfolders. Or, remove the subfolder from the parent so it is no longer a subfolder and give access to the new file path.

-Karson