SharePoint 2010 Permission Report: Check Access Rights for a Specific User

Update: This script has been updated to scan Folders and List Items with Claims support at: SharePoint User Permission Analysis & Reporting using PowerShell

Requirement: To ensure security, generate permissions report on all locations like (sites, lists, etc.) where a specific user has permissions.

When people moving from one role to another, Its necessary to audit their permissions on sites and lists where user has access rights. But unfortunately, There is no out of the box ways to find all sites and lists where a particular user has been granted access in SharePoint with out using third party tools. Luckily, We've PowerShell! Lets find all SharePoint sites and lists where a particular user has access rights.

PowerShell Script to Check and Generate Report on Access Rights for a Specific User:
With this script, you can analyze and track the security effectively check what permissions on an account has been granted on each all places in SharePoint. This PowerShell script scans these areas to to retrieve a specific user's access rights:

• Farm Administrator's Group
• Central Administration Web Application Policies
• Site Collection Administrators 
• Scans the all Site collections and Sub-sites with Unique Permissions
• Scans all Lists and Libraries with unique permissions
• Scans all Groups which has permissions on sites and Lists

After executing the script, it generates a CSV file (Tab Separated, In fact!) with details: URL, Site/List, Title, Permission Type, Permissions as in the below screenshot.

We want to track How many Sites user has permissions, How many Lists or Libraries user has explicitly added and so on based on business needs.

PowerShell Script to Retrieve User Access Rights Across web application:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
 
Function GetUserAccessReport($WebAppURL, $SearchUser)
{

    #Output Report location
    $OutputReport = "C:\Scripts\UserAccessReport.csv"
    #delete the file, If already exist!
    if (Test-Path $OutputReport)
     {
        Remove-Item $OutputReport
     }

Write-host "Scanning Farm Administrator Group..." 

#Write CSV- TAB Separated File) Header
"URL `t Site/List `t Title `t PermissionType `t Permissions" | out-file $OutputReport
 
  ####Check Whether the Search Users is a Farm Administrator ###
  #Get the SharePoint Central Administration site
  $AdminWebApp= Get-SPwebapplication -includecentraladministration | where {$_.IsAdministrationWebApplication}
    $AdminSite = Get-SPweb($AdminWebApp.Url)
    $AdminGroupName = $AdminSite.AssociatedOwnerGroup
    $FarmAdminGroup = $AdminSite.SiteGroups[$AdminGroupName]
 
 #enumerate in farm adminidtrators groups
    foreach ($user in $FarmAdminGroup.users)
    {
     if($user.LoginName -eq $SearchUser)
     {
       "$($AdminWebApp.URL) `t Farm `t $($AdminSite.Title)`t Farm Administrator `t Farm Administrator" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
     }     
    }
 
Write-host "Scanning Web Application Policies..." 

 ### Check Web Application Policies ###
  $WebApp= Get-SPWebApplication $WebAppURL
 
  foreach ($Policy in $WebApp.Policies)
  {
      #Check if the search users is member of the group
     if($Policy.UserName -eq $SearchUser)
       {
       #Write-Host $Policy.UserName
        $PolicyRoles=@()
       foreach($Role in $Policy.PolicyRoleBindings)
       {
        $PolicyRoles+= $Role.Name +";"
       }
       #Write-Host "Permissions: " $PolicyRoles
      "$($AdminWebApp.URL) `t Web Application `t $($AdminSite.Title)`t  Web Application Policy `t $($PolicyRoles)" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
   }
  }

 Write-host "Scanning Site Collections..." 
 #Get All Site Collections of the WebApp
 $SiteCollections = Get-SPSite -WebApplication $WebAppURL -Limit All
    
  #Loop through all site collections
   foreach($Site in $SiteCollections)
    {
     Write-host "Scanning Site Collection:" $site.Url
     #Check Whether the Search User is a Site Collection Administrator
     foreach($SiteCollAdmin in $Site.RootWeb.SiteAdministrators)
        {
      if($SiteCollAdmin.LoginName -eq $SearchUser)
      {
       "$($Site.RootWeb.Url) `t Site `t $($Site.RootWeb.Title)`t Site Collection Administrator `t Site Collection Administrator" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
      }     
    }
   
     #Loop throuh all Sub Sites
  foreach($Web in $Site.AllWebs)
  {
      if($Web.HasUniqueRoleAssignments -eq $True)
            {
             Write-host "Scanning Site:" $Web.Url
    
            #Get all the users granted permissions to the list
              foreach($WebRoleAssignment in $Web.RoleAssignments )
    {
                 #Is it a User Account?
          if($WebRoleAssignment.Member.userlogin)   
           {
              #Is the current user is the user we search for?
              if($WebRoleAssignment.Member.LoginName -eq $SearchUser)
             {
               #Write-Host  $SearchUser has direct permissions to site $Web.Url
               #Get the Permissions assigned to user
       $WebUserPermissions=@()
                foreach ($RoleDefinition  in $WebRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings)
                {
                 $WebUserPermissions += $RoleDefinition.Name +";"
                }
               #write-host "with these permissions: " $WebUserPermissions
          
         #Send the Data to Log file
               "$($Web.Url) `t Site `t $($Web.Title)`t Direct Permission `t $($WebUserPermissions)" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
             }
           }
        #Its a SharePoint Group, So search inside the group and check if the user is member of that group
         else 
          {
                        foreach($user in $WebRoleAssignment.member.users)
                            {
                #Check if the search users is member of the group
               if($user.LoginName -eq $SearchUser)
                {
                  #Write-Host  "$SearchUser is Member of " $WebRoleAssignment.Member.Name "Group"
                  #Get the Group's Permissions on site
                $WebGroupPermissions=@()
                  foreach ($RoleDefinition  in $WebRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings)
                  {
                      $WebGroupPermissions += $RoleDefinition.Name +";"
                     }
                #write-host "Group has these permissions: " $WebGroupPermissions
               
               #Send the Data to Log file
               "$($Web.Url) `t Site `t $($Web.Title)`t Member of $($WebRoleAssignment.Member.Name) Group `t $($WebGroupPermissions)" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
              }
             }
     }
    }
      } 
     
    ###*****  Check Lists with Unique Permissions *******###
   foreach($List in $Web.lists)
   {
             if($List.HasUniqueRoleAssignments -eq $True -and ($List.Hidden -eq $false))
                {
                 Write-host "Scanning List:" $List.RootFolder.Url
                    #Get all the users granted permissions to the list
     foreach($ListRoleAssignment in $List.RoleAssignments )
                    {
                     #Is it a User Account?
             if($ListRoleAssignment.Member.userlogin)   
              {
                 #Is the current user is the user we search for?
                 if($ListRoleAssignment.Member.LoginName -eq $SearchUser)
                {
                  #Write-Host  $SearchUser has direct permissions to List ($List.ParentWeb.Url)/($List.RootFolder.Url)
                  #Get the Permissions assigned to user
                   $ListUserPermissions=@()
                    foreach ($RoleDefinition  in $ListRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings)
                    {
                                 $ListUserPermissions += $RoleDefinition.Name +";"
                                }
                  #write-host "with these permissions: " $ListUserPermissions
              
                  #Send the Data to Log file
                  "$($List.ParentWeb.Url)/$($List.RootFolder.Url) `t List `t $($List.Title)`t Direct Permissions `t $($ListUserPermissions)" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
                }
              }
              #Its a SharePoint Group, So search inside the group and check if the user is member of that group
             else 
              {
       foreach($user in $ListRoleAssignment.member.users)
       {
                   if($user.LoginName -eq $SearchUser)
                    {
                     #Write-Host  "$SearchUser is Member of " $ListRoleAssignment.Member.Name "Group"
                      #Get the Group's Permissions on site
                    $ListGroupPermissions=@()
                      foreach ($RoleDefinition  in $ListRoleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings)
                      {
                                  $ListGroupPermissions += $RoleDefinition.Name +";"
                                 }
                    #write-host "Group has these permissions: " $ListGroupPermissions
               
                    #Send the Data to Log file
                    "$($Web.Url) `t Site `t $($List.Title)`t Member of $($ListRoleAssignment.Member.Name) Group `t $($ListGroupPermissions)" | Out-File $OutputReport -Append
                  }
                }
             }
                    }
                }
            }
     }
 }
     
 Write-host "`n Access Rights Report Generated!" 
 }
 

#Call the function to Check User Access
GetUserAccessReport "http://sharepoint.crescent.com" "i:0#.w|Global\Salaudeen"

You can Download the complete PowerShell Script from MSDN Code Gallery: SharePoint Permission Report: Check Access Rights for a Specific User

Limitation: Currently, it doesn't count on active directory groups! Say, for e.g. an active directory security group may include the user you are searching for and that group may be granted with access rights. Also, it doesn't go til folder, list Item level. it stops at List.

Huh, another nifty script under my SharePoint Admin tool belt!