lpSecurityAttributes

lpSecurityAttributes is a Windows API pointer type used to supply security and inheritance information to several kernel objects when creating or duplicating handles. It points to a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure that describes details about the object’s security and whether a handle should be inherited by child processes.

The SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure contains three fields: nLength, lpSecurityDescriptor, and bInheritHandle. The nLength field must be set to the size of the SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure. lpSecurityDescriptor points to a SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR that defines the object's security attributes; if this is NULL, the system uses a default security descriptor derived from the calling process. The bInheritHandle field indicates whether the returned handle is inheritable by child processes; a nonzero value allows inheritance, while zero prevents it.

In practical use, a caller fills a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure, assigns its address to an LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES, and passes it to functions such as CreateFile, CreatePipe, CreateProcess, or DuplicateHandle. If you pass NULL for lpSecurityAttributes, the object receives default security settings and handles are not inheritable unless otherwise configured. When using a custom security descriptor, ensure it remains valid for the lifetime of the handle, as the system typically relies on the memory you provide for the descriptor. The system may copy the descriptor as needed, but you are generally responsible for its lifetime and cleanup if required by the descriptor’s creation method.

lpSecurityAttributes is defined in Windows headers (for example, Winbase.h) as a typedef for SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES* (that is, a pointer to SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES). Programs should include Windows.h to access these definitions.