View-only Administrators can delete public folders created in a public folders administrative group

A user that has Exchange View-only Administrator rights on a specific Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 administrative group (Administrative Group A), can delete public folders on a server within that administrative group (Administrative Group A).

The expected behavior is that a View-only Administrator cannot delete public folders within an administrative group to which the user has View-only Administrative rights.

Note In Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003, you can delegate Exchange Administrative rights through the Exchange Administration Delegation Wizard in Exchange System Manager at the Organizational level, or at the Administrative Group level. This article specifically refers to the rights at the Administrative Group level.

This behavior can occur if the user has either Exchange Administrator rights or Exchange Full Administrator rights at the Administrative Group level on a different administrative group (Administrative Group B). This behavior can also occur if Administrative Group B holds a public folder store associated to the same public folder tree as the public folder store on the server in the other administrative group (Administrative Group A), where the same user obtains only Exchange View-only Administrator rights at the Administrative Group level.

In Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003, by design, a user that is an Exchange View-only Administrator for a specific administrative group can use the drag-and-drop feature to move folders, and delete public folders anywhere in a public folder tree. The user can only perform this function if the user is also an Exchange Administrator or an Exchange Full Administrator on another administrative group, which holds a public folder store associated to this public folder tree.