BUG: GetSecurityInfo()/SetSecurityInfo() Will Fail with ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER

• Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), used with:
  • Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 SP4

SYMPTOMS

On Service Pack 4, calling GetSecurityInfo() to retrieve a copy of the security descriptor for a registry key handle will fail with ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER. This problem occurs only when the registry handle points to HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_USERS or any subkeys underneath. In addition, calling SetSecurityInfo() on Service Pack 4 to set the security descriptor for a registry key handle will fail with the same error.

RESOLUTION

An application can use the low level access control functions RegGetKeySecurity and RegSetKeySecurity respectively to get around this problem.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbAccCtrl kbAPI kbKernBase kbSecurity 
Version           : winnt:4.0 SP4
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug 

Last Reviewed: May 20, 1999