Security Concerns with Search Indexes

Search indexes can be a security hole on a network. A search index contains actual data and keywords from files and can even produce a preview. So even if a computer doesn't have access to a sensitive file, it could still get a full preview of the file through the search engine. This article describes the security of different indexing strategies.

Applies to: FileCenter Professional using the built-in search engine.

Scenario A: Each User Has Their Own Index

If each user maintains their own index (this is the default behavior), FileCenter will not have any greater permissions than the user has. So it will not be able to index folders/files that the user does not have rights to. As a result, these files will not appear in search results and cannot be previewed.

Scenario B: Shared Network Index

If the index is shared on the network (this has to be set up manually), then users will be able to search and preview any document in the index, even if the document is in a restricted folder. However, they will not be able to open the document.