Allow Limited Access in upper levels, to navigate to a restricted folder which allows Contribute

Question

I have a restricted folder five levels down (home site/ subsite1/subsite2/ library/ folder) that needs to have Contribute access for the folder's user group, and I'd like those folks to be able to navigate down to the folder but not see content in each site and library along the way (Limited Access?). Also, I think right now they actually have inappropriate Contribute rights at the top levels. Someone else set up the group, and the group currently has listed in "View Site Collection Permissions: " web dialog box:

home site - Contribute

subsite1 - no entry at all (why?, how did this get skipped?)

subsite2 - Limited Access

library - Contribute, Limited Access

folder - Contribute (which is correct, desired state - and "This folder has unique permissions")

First how do I modify the permission level on the sites above for this group, to make sure they don't have inappropriate access? I can't find how to change those upper levels, for this group.

I'm scared to change the top site level permission from Contribute to Limited Access, in case that changes the overall capability of the group throughout the site - the generic MS explanations don't seem to address this situation.

Second, any other suggestions for cleanup? It's a mess, and I've got alot of these types of restricted groups with a variety of upper level permissions.

Thanks!!!

Answer 1

The only way I can think that you could give someone access to navigate through a site but not access any of the content is to give the person/group read permissions to the site, and break inheritance for every list and library in that site to have different permissions. Obviously, it would be terribly tedious, but there's no way to give someone "navigate" permissions only.