Editing File system (section)

=== Access control ===

<!-- Too many 'see also' links, perhaps these should be moved to the 'See also' sect at the end -->
{{See also|Computer security|Password cracking|Filesystem-level encryption|Encrypting File System}}

A file system often supports access control of data that it manages.

The intent of access control is often to prevent certain users from reading or modifying certain files.

Access control can also restrict access by program in order to ensure that data is modified in a controlled way. Examples include passwords stored in the metadata of the file or elsewhere and [[file permissions]] in the form of permission bits, [[access control list]]s, or [[Capability-based security|capabilities]]. The need for file system utilities to be able to access the data at the media level to reorganize the structures and provide efficient backup usually means that these are only effective for polite users but are not effective against intruders.
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Methods for encrypting file data are sometimes included in the file system. This is very effective since there is no need for file system utilities to know the encryption seed to effectively manage the data. The risks of relying on encryption include the fact that an attacker can copy the data and use brute force to decrypt the data. Additionally, losing the seed means losing the data.