What is the difference between Right and Permission?

Question

I know that the term rights applies to user/groups of users (such as- the user X has the right to change system time) ; and the term permissions applies to an object (such as folder/file. Eg- the user X has full permissions over this folder). This link "http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs-permissions-user-rights.htm" says the same.

Then why are we NOT saying user permissions instead of user rights ? What is the difference in the meaning of the two words permission and rights?

Answer 1

Definitions provided by Microsoft:

^{(based on your use of the ntfs tag)}

Permissions:

A permission is authorization to perform an operation on a specific object, such as a file. Permissions are granted by owners. If you own an object, you can grant any user or security group permission to do whatever you are authorized to do with it. This includes granting permission to take ownership.

Source: Distributed Security: Access Control (Permissions) on Microsoft TechNet

User Rights:

A user right is authorization to perform an operation that affects an entire computer rather than a specific object on the computer.

Source: Distributed Security: Access Control (User Rights) on Microsoft TechNet

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I did not miss the fact you asked about "rights", not user rights, but your description of a right is clearly that of a system-wide change, which agrees with the definition given here.

I must point out these are Windows-centric definitions and are not readily transposed to other software platforms. The distinction in terms made above only makes sense when qualifying the term "right" as "user right." Without that qualification, it's perfectly reasonable to use the terms right and permission interchangeably. That said, there are plenty of examples where convention prefers one term over the other, such as NTFS Permissions not being called NTFS Rights.

Answer 2

In computer security the two terms are user interchangeably.

They both refer to the defined allowances and denials that comprise the limits and expanses within which a user or processes operates on a system.

While some may argue for a narrower view that does not allow overlap, in the real world you may use any of these terms and you will be understood perfectly.