查询Active Directory中用户、组及组成员所需的最小权限及可执行该操作的用户类型

Great question—let’s break this down clearly since AD permissions can get confusing if you’re working with default vs. custom setups.

1. Minimum Permissions Required to Query Users, Groups, and Group Members #

The absolute minimum permission you need is the Read permission on the AD objects (users, groups) and the parent containers (like OUs or the domain root) you’re querying. Specifically, this translates to:

• List Contents on the container (to see the objects inside)
• Read All Properties on the user/group objects themselves
• Read Permissions (though this is often included with basic read access by default)

By default, Active Directory grants these permissions to the Authenticated Users group automatically—so you don’t need admin rights or special group memberships just to run basic queries for users, groups, and their members.

2. Which Users Can Read/Query AD Objects? #

Most authenticated users can read AD objects out of the box, including:

• All domain users (they’re automatically part of Authenticated Users)
• Trusted domain users (if there’s a forest trust set up between domains)
• Local users who authenticate against the domain (though their access might be limited to certain objects)

You don’t need to add users to a specific group for basic read access—this is enabled by default for all authenticated accounts. The only exceptions are:

• If you’ve modified the default permissions on an OU/domain (e.g., locked down a sensitive OU to restrict access)
• Anonymous users: AD blocks anonymous read access by default, so unauthenticated users can’t query objects.

If you do need to grant read access to a user who doesn’t have it (like for a custom restricted OU), you can either:

• Assign the Read permission directly to the user on the target container/objects
• Add the user to a group that already has the necessary read permissions

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Gags