Question

I’m getting a SecurityException, “Access Denied” when trying to make a web.config modification programmatically.

Code closely follows this example:

    public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
    {
        // create modification
        SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
        {
            SPWebConfigModification m = new SPWebConfigModification();
            m.Path = "configuration/SharePoint/SafeControls";
            m.Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SafeControl[@Assembly='{0}'][@Namespace='{1}'][@TypeName='*'][@Safe='True']", ADSWebPart.GetAssemblyFullName(), ADSWebPart.GetNamespace());
            m.Sequence = 0;
            m.Owner = SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.Name;
            m.Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode;
            m.Value = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "<SafeControl Assembly='{0}' Namespace='{1}' TypeName='*' Safe='True' />", ADSWebPart.GetAssemblyFullName(), ADSWebPart.GetNamespace());

            // apply modification
            SPWebService service = SPWebService.ContentService;
            service.WebConfigModifications.Add(m);
            service.Update();
            service.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
        });
    }

(I started with no call to RunWithElevatedPrivileges(), got same exception, then continued enclosing more and more code up to enclosing all body of FeatureActivated().)

Ideas welcome, thanks.

Answer 1

I’m not answering your question as asked, but why are you using a Feature receiver to add SafeControl Entries?

The “Right” way to add SafeControl Entries is to embed these inside <SafeControls> inside the corresponding <Assembly> in manifest.xml of your Solution like this:

<Assembly Location="MyLib.dll" DeploymentTarget="WebApplication">
  <SafeControls>
    <SafeControl Assembly="MyLib, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=4489c7aa5341e32c" Namespace="MyNs" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />
  </SafeControls>
</Assembly>