Let’s learn the various way to know Security identifier SID of user in Windows 11. A security identifier (SID) is used to uniquely identify a security principal or security group. Security principals can represent any entity that can be authenticated by the operating system, such as a user account, a computer account, or a thread or process that runs in the security context of a user or computer account.
Each account or group, or each process that runs in the security context of the account, has a unique SID that’s issued by an authority, such as a Windows domain controller. The SID is stored in a security database. The system generates the SID that identifies a particular account or group at the time the account or group is created.
When a SID has been used as the unique identifier for a user or group, it can never be used again to identify another user or group. Each time a user signs in, the system creates an access token for that user. The access token contains the user’s SID, user rights, and the SIDs for any groups the user belongs to. This token provides the security context for whatever actions the user performs on that computer.
In addition to the uniquely created domain-specific SIDs that are assigned to specific users and groups, there are well-known SIDs that identify generic groups and generic users. SIDs are a fundamental building block of the Windows security model. They work with specific components of the authorization and access control technologies in the security infrastructure of the Windows Server operating systems. This helps protect access to network resources and provides a more secure computing environment.
Table of Contents
Are there any Group Policy and Intune Policy Settings in Windows 11 to Know Security Identifier (SID) of User?
The answer is no. We cannot find any Group Policy and Intune Policy to find Ways to Know Security Identifier (SID) of User in Windows 11 . If you have anything, let us know in the Comments.
What is Security Identifier (SID)?
The Windows computing and Microsoft Active Directory, a security identifier (SID) is a uniquevalue that is used to identify any security entity that authenticate by Windows Operating System. A security identifier is used to uniquely identify a security principal or security group. Security principals can represent any entity that can be authenticated by the operating system, such as a user account, a computer account, or a thread or process that runs in the security context of a user or computer account.
All Windows objects that can be uniquely idnetified by name store their SID, along with any discretionary access control lists and system account control lists, in a security descriptor data structure.
How Security Identifier (SID) Works?
Users refer to accounts by the account name, but the operating system internally refers to accounts and processes that run in the security context of the account by using their SIDs. For domain accounts, the SID of a security principal is created by concatenating the SID of the domain with a Relative Identifier (RID) for the account. SIDs are unique within their scope (domain or local), and they’re never reused.
The operating system generates a SID that identifies a particular account or group at the time the account or group is created. The SID for a local account or group is generated by the Local Security Authority (LSA) on the computer, and it’s stored with other account information in a secure area of the registry. The SID for a domain account or group is generated by the domain security authority, and it’s stored as an attribute of the User or Group object in Active Directory Domain Services.
Architecture of Security Identifier (SID)
A security identifier is a data structure in binary format that contains a variable number of values. The first values in the structure contain information about the SID structure. The remaining values are arranged in a hierarchy (similar to a telephone number), and they identify the SID-issuing authority (for example, “NT Authority”), the SID-issuing domain, and a particular security principal or group.
The following image illustrates the structure of a SID and the individual values of a SID are described in the table below.
| Comment | Description |
|---|---|
| Revision | Indicates the version of the SID structure that’s used in a particular SID. |
| Identifier Authority | Identifies the highest level of authority that can issue SIDs for a particular type of security principal. For example, the identifier authority value in the SID for the Everyone group is 1 (World Authority). The identifier authority value in the SID for a specific Windows Server account or group is 5 (NT Authority). |
| Subauthorities | Holds the most important information in a SID, which is contained in a series of one or more subauthority values. All values up to, but not including, the last value in the series collectively identify a domain in an enterprise. This part of the series is called the domain identifier. The last value in the series, which is called the relative identifier (RID), identifies a particular account or group relative to a domain. |
Elevated PowerShell
To know Security identifier (SID) user can use the PowerShell in Administrative mode. To do so, click on the Search on your taskbar of the desktop. Then type powershell and select Run as Administrator, then press Yes for UAC to open powershell window.
Command: WhoAmI
When you open the powershell window then you can type the following command to check the SID. Copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID as illustrated below.
whoami /user
Command: GetCurrent – Outputs SID with UserName
If you want the current SID with user name then copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID with user name as illustrated below.
[Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent() | Select-Object -Property @('Name', 'User')
Command: GetCurrent – Outputs only SID
If you want the only SID then copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID with user name as illustrated below.
[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().User.Value
Command: wmic useraccount – All user
You can also get the user account domain, name & SID then copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID with user name as illustrated below.
wmic useraccount get domain,name,sid
Command: Get-WmiObject
You can also use the following command to know the SID, copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID as illustrated below.
Get-WmiObject win32_useraccount | Select domain,name,sid
Command: Get-LocalUser
You can also find the Local User by using the following command to know the SID, copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID as illustrated below.
Get-LocalUser | Select-Object -Property @('Name', 'SID')
Command: Get-CimInstance
You can also find the SID by using the following command, copy the following command and paste in the PowerShell and press Enter to know the SID as illustrated below.
Get-CimInstance -query 'Select * from win32_useraccount' | ft name, SID
Registry Editor
Using the registry editor, you can also know the Security Identifier (SID) of Windows 11. This procedure is done using the Registry Editor. Let’s discuss the step-by-step guidelines for it.
Now, open Run Window, and press Windows Key + R from the keyboard simultaneously. This is the keyboard shortcut to open the run window. Now, type regedit and press Enter.
Now, the Registry Editor opens. Find the path ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.’ Following the trail, you can see the list of profiles with default SID.
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Author
Alok graduated with a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) degree. He loves writing on Windows 11 and related technologies. He likes to share his knowledge, quick tips, and tricks with Windows 11 or Windows 10 with the community.