Using Security Features in FrontPage

Customizing Security

The Microsoft FrontPage built-in security management features allow you to set role-based permissions on FrontPage-extended webs (or nested subwebs). But setting permissions on a per-web basis might not give you the control you want. You can, in fact, set permissions at a finer level of granularity by setting permissions on files and folders.

Another way to customize security is to specify authoring restrictions. For example, you can prevent authors from uploading executable scripts and require authors to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Setting permissions on files and folders

When you set permissions at the file or folder level, you bypass the security mechanisms in FrontPage and set permissions on the ACLs yourself.

Note   This is an advanced technique and must be done carefully to avoid weakening the security of the content on your Web server.

To set permissions on a file or folder of a FrontPage-extended web, open the FrontPage snap-in in Microsoft Management Console (MMC), right-click computername, and then click the Properties command. On the Server Extensions tab in the Properties dialog box, select the Manage permissions manually check box.

As a convenience, the FrontPage Server Extensions Configuration Wizard creates three empty local computer groups when you create a FrontPage-extended web. The groups are named webname Admins, webname Authors, and webname Browsers. If you decide to set permissions yourself on files or folders, it is recommended that you use these three groups in the ACLs and maintain these groups by using the Windows NT Server User Manager.

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Refining security

In addition to setting permissions on ACLs, you can also perform the following actions to fine-tune security:

• Allow or prevent authors from uploading executable scripts and programs.
• Require authors to use the SSL protocol.
• Enable or disable authoring.
• Log authoring actions.

To perform any of these actions on a FrontPage-extended web, open the FrontPage snap-in in MMC and click the Properties command. On the Server Extensions tab in the Properties dialog box, select the appropriate check boxes.

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See also

You can also use FrontPage Server Extensions to provide security on UNIX operating systems. For more information, see the Front Page Server Extensions Resource Kit Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/wpp/serk/.