[SAI_Peregrinus]

The directory they're stored in needs Administrator access, but the kernel runs with SYSTEM level permissions. Administrator is an account, SYSTEM is a security principal. SYSTEM level processes can access domain servers in the context of the computer's domain account, while Administrators can't do so unless they provide explicit credentials (or share a password with an Administrator account on the domain). So this could be used as a way to elevate access from local Administrator up to whatever that computer can do on a connected domain server!