SharePoint Dragons

This can be tested for both lists and document libraries, and the answer depends on various list settings (a term we use in a generic way that also includes document library settings). Possible list settings are:
– Content approval setting: With or without content approval
– Draft item security: Any user who can read items, Only users who can approve items, or Any user who can approve items (and the author of the item).

Searching using the credentials of the author results in items in lists as well as document libraries that only require Read permissions (option “Any user who can read items”). All other Draft versions in lists and libraries with different settings are not included in search results. For instance, a document in Draft version in a library that has the following condition: [go to document library > Library > Library Settings > Versioning settings > Draft Item Security > Only users who can edit items] is NOT returned.

Searching under the context of a user that only has READ permissions yields the exact same search results.

Investigating the crawl log shows that the items that are not returned aren’t even indexed.