Important Question About Permissions

jtryptophan · Post by **jtryptophan** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:10 pm

We have several private forums on my site. My global moderators are not supposed to be able to see into, nor be able to moderate these private forums. It was brought to my attention that via the Moderator Control Panel, the moderators are able to back door their way into these protected forums by clicking [Moderate] which gives them full access to even the password protected sub-forums. Is there a way to prevent this? I must be missing something.

Thanks!

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:25 pm

Yes, you are missing something. If the Global Moderators group has no permission to see the forum, there is no "backdoor". Use the Forum-based permissions mask on the username of a global moderator to check this. Have you confirmed it yourself?

BTW, passwords are an annoying waste of time and less secure than the permissions system.

jtryptophan · Post by **jtryptophan** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:40 pm

When I use the Forum Based permissions mask, the Globals have mostly yes checked including "can search forum", lock topics, etc. (moderative stuff). But, when I look at the Forum Moderators, I have not added them to these forums and their moderator permissions are all clicked to "no". Hrm?

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:42 pm

But what do they have for Can see forum for the forum in question?

jtryptophan · Post by **jtryptophan** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:51 pm

They can see it, search it, read it, start new topics, etc. Does this mean if they can see it then they can moderate it even if I haven't made them "Forum Moderators"? I would like everyone to see the forums and only certain members be able to moderate them.

As far as passwords vs. permissions, since I have 100's of users in each private forum, and people coming and going all the time, it would be more difficult for me to change permissions so frequently instead of having the passwords, no? I have over 100,000 members. For smaller forums your point is well made.

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 3:07 pm

A Global Moderator can moderate every forum they can see. Hence the name. Make a group that has moderator permissions on every forum except that one and put them in that group and remove them from Global Moderators.