SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES

The SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure contains the security descriptor for an object and specifies whether the handle retrieved by specifying this structure is inheritable.

typedef struct _SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES { // sa 
    DWORD  nLength; 
    LPVOID lpSecurityDescriptor; 
    BOOL   bInheritHandle; 
} SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES; 
 

Members

nLength

Specifies the size, in bytes, of this structure. Set this value to the size of the SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure.

Windows NT: Some functions that use the SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure do not verify the value of the nLength member. However, an application should still set it properly. That ensures current, future, and cross-platform compatibility.

lpSecurityDescriptor

Pointer to a security descriptor for the object that controls the sharing of it. If NULL is specified for this member, the object may be assigned the default security descriptor of the calling process.

Windows 95 and Windows 98: The lpSecurityDescriptor member of the structure is ignored.

bInheritHandle

Specifies whether the returned handle is inherited when a new process is created. If this member is TRUE, the new process inherits the handle.

Remarks

A pointer to a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure is used as a parameter in most kernel and window-management functions in the Win32 API that return a handle of an object.

QuickInfo

  Windows NT: Requires version 3.1 or later.
  Windows: Requires Windows 95 or later.
  Windows CE: Unsupported.
  Header: Declared in winnt.h.

See Also

Access Control Overview, Access Control Structures, SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR