ASP.NET cannot read file: "access to the path ... is denied"

Question

tl;dr: critical bits are in bold.

We have a website page that, when executed, is supposed to read in a series of files, zip them up, and return them to the user.

Unfortunately, we are running into an error:

ASP.NET is not authorized to access the requested resource. Consider granting access rights to the resource to the ASP.NET request identity. ASP.NET has a base process identity (typically {MACHINE}\ASPNET on IIS 5 or Network Service on IIS 6) that is used if the application is not impersonating. If the application is impersonating via , the identity will be the anonymous user (typically IUSR_MACHINENAME) or the authenticated request user.

My line attempting to access the file currently looks like this:

using (FileStream x = File.Open(@"\\thedirectory\filename.pdf", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)) { }

(This line doesn't do anything useful other than try to open the file, since right now I'm just trying to see if I have access at all.)

This code works, and opens the file without a problem if I copy the file to a directory on my machine and have the path go there. But if I go to the remote machine where the original file is, no dice.

I went down a rabbit hole for a while trying to make sure that whoever the ASP.NET process was running as, that process had permissions to the directory. However, since that wasn't working and I was getting desperate, I have given "everyone" all access rights to the remote directory as a test. Still getting the same error.

I'm guessing this is a permissions issue (since that's what it's claiming) combined with the fact that the code works when pointing at a local file. However, since I've already given "everyone" all permissions, I'm lost as to what could be going wrong.

Ideas?

Are you testing this in your LocalHost? If you are it seems like an ASPNET user account issue. Try and see if you have permission to write/read in this folder with this account. — Hanlet Escaño
– Hanlet Escaño, Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 22:52

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:13:38Z

2

I'm guessing that the other files are on a different machine, here is one possiblity: https://serverfault.com/questions/41130/network-service-account-accessing-a-folder-share

Another possiblity is to impersonate a domain account that has access to the target folder- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306158

Or change the service account to a domain account that has access to the target folder.

edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:13

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Dec 10, 2012 at 22:48

MatthewMartin

33.3k33 gold badges117 silver badges172 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Beska Over a year ago

We can't do impersonation in general, since this is a very large preexisting commerce website...the testing for a global change would be prohibitive. But it does make me think that I might be able to just drop this functionality into it's own directory, and put a local web.config in that directory, and do impersonation there. (I can't try this right now unfortunately...but when I can, I'll report on results.) I'll also look at your first option when I can (probably early tomorrow.) Thanks for the pointers.

Beska Over a year ago

Thanks for the options. The 2nd option was what worked for me (impersonating a user, specifically created for this access, and putting that into a web.config in a directory with only that file), but the other options sound like good options that might work for other people with a similar issue.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

ASP.NET cannot read file: "access to the path ... is denied"

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Related