Permissions & sharing audit: what the findings mean
Risk levels, sharing link types, guests, "Everyone" and site admins – and how to clean them up in SharePoint.
Risk levels
| Risk | When |
|---|---|
| High | An Anyone link; a guest or Everyone who can edit; a guest site collection administrator; a group with guests that can edit |
| Medium | A guest or Everyone who can read; an organization link that can edit |
| Low | An organization link that can view |
| Info | Every other unique permission (groups, people) – useful for access reviews |
Flags
| Flag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Anyone link | Anyone with the link can open it, without signing in |
| Organization link | Everyone in your organization with the link |
| Specific people link | Shared with named people – the guests among them are listed |
| Guest | An external user (#ext#), directly or inside a SharePoint group |
| Everyone | "Everyone", "Everyone except external users" or all authenticated users |
| Direct user permission | Given to one person instead of a group – hard to manage |
| Site admin | A site collection administrator |
How deep
- Everything reads items with their own permissions in every list and library – the most complete, slower on large sites.
- Sites and lists – no single files or folders.
- Sites only – site and subsite permissions and administrators.
Tick Read SharePoint group members to find guests inside groups and see who a specific-people link was shared with.
The People tab
One line per person, group or link with the highest risk and how many objects they can reach – a quick access review. Click a line to see the objects.
Cleaning up
- Anyone links: SharePoint admin center → Policies → Sharing → limit links to New and existing guests or Only people in your organization; per site under Active sites → Sharing. Existing links stop working when the setting is tightened.
- Guests: remove them from the site (Site permissions) or from Entra ID if they no longer need access.
- Everyone: replace with a SharePoint or Microsoft 365 group.
- Run the audit again to confirm.
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Updated 2026-10-26