Only one property needs to be specified in the hdfs-site.xml file in order to enable ACLs on HDFS:
dfs.namenode.acls.enabled
Set this property to "true" to enable support for ACLs. ACLs are disabled by default. When ACLs are disabled, the NameNode rejects all attempts to set an ACL.
Example:
<property> <name>dfs.namenode.acls.enabled</name> <value>true</value> </property>