In a project we have a WCF Service which is hosted in IIS.
Now we need to start a windows application (interactive, hence has a window).
Just to clarify: The application shall run on the server. It is a third party application we have no access to and cannot modify it.
The WCF Service leverages an application pool that runs under a special user account, "load user profile" is checked.
I still get the System.ComponentModel Access violation exception, so I think that I missed something.
Also have seen solutions with the "IIS Admin Services" which can allow desktop interaction, but this seems to belong to IIS 6 only.
Check to make sure that the account you are using can read and write the correct registry keys, and file locations. Make sure that the file you are attempting to execute is in a location on disk that can be accessed by the service account.
Related
I have created a Service in C# in which I am performing two tasks.
Task-1: Extracting Windows Event Logs.
Task-2: Sending the desired log (if present) to a Database that reside on another system.
If I run this Service under LocalSystem Account, it successfully performs Task-1 because its System related, but not Task-2 because LocalSystem Account does not have access to Network.
If I run this Service under NetworkService Account to access the Database on other Machine, it does not perform Task-1 because NetworkService Account has Limited access over System resources. Due to this, it is unable to extract Windows Event Logs.
I know that my code is correct because I have tested the whole code in Console Application and it performs both Tasks correctly.
I need the solution through which I can perform both Tasks through a Service.
"If I run this Service under LocalSystem Account, it successfully performs Task-1 because its System related, but not Task-2 because LocalSystem Account does not have access to Network."
This is not true. The LocalSystem account has access to everything on the system, as far as I know, including the ability to interact with the network. I can speak to this from personal experience because I've had a Windows service in the project I work on for almost a decade now, and it interacts with the network all the time. Check out the accepted answer here for more info.
It's very likely that an exception is occurring when your code is running from the Windows service, but does not occur when running from the Console app. Have you tried debugging your service? Have you checked the Windows event log for errors?
Goal:
I periodically upload new .exe file to windows server 2003 via FTP and I want to run it manually by hitting Url of a web site on same server. Exe needs to be run under an Admin account, and not the NETWORK SERVICE account.
What I achieved so far:
I have been able to successfully run applications like notepad under the Admin account on the server via a web request by using any of these:
PsExec,
.net process.Start() with credentials supplied to process.StartInfo and even
by impersonating admin and then using process.Start without credentials (http://www.f4cio.com/programmatically-impersonate-in-csharp)
The problem:
The above methods run my exe but Task Manager, or a call to System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name shows me that it is running under NETWORK SERVICE.
I suspect that this file has added security constraints because it arrived from ftp link. Checking run-as-administrator in properties of file is not an option because file will be replaced periodically and all needs to be automated. Also manual server configuration should be minimal or ideally non-existent. Code-only single-web-page solution is ideal. Editing both that asp.net web page and exe is ok. (I tried something with exe self-restarting).
Not sure about this, but I suspect this has to do with you website running under the NETWORK SERVICE user. Whatever privileges your website-user has, the same are probably granted / passed on as you try to run your executable.
Is this server on an internal network or protected in some other way? (I should hope so!). If so, you might try changing App Pool that the website is running under to an admin account (in IIS, right click the App Pool running the site, select Advanced Settings, and look for the Identity setting). If I'm right, that will allow you to run your executable as an admin too.
Be aware however, that this may increase the security risk of your setup: Allowing your site to run under an admin account means easier access to your entire server if anyone is able to penetrate whatever security measures you have in place. Make sure access to this server is tightly limited, and preferably, that it in turn does not have access to other systems, since that would in turn make them vulnerable by extension.
I have written a Windows service that allows me to remotely run and stop applications. These applications are run using CreateProcess, and this works for me because most of them only perform backend processing. Recently, I need to run applications that present GUI to the current log in user. How do I code in C++ to allow my service to locate the currently active desktop and run the GUI on it?
Roger Lipscombe's answer, to use WTSEnumerateSessions to find the right desktop, then CreateProcessAsUser to start the application on that desktop (you pass it the handle of the desktop as part of the STARTUPINFO structure) is correct.
However, I would strongly recommend against doing this. In some environments, such as Terminal Server hosts with many active users, determining which desktop is the 'active' one isn't easy, and may not even be possible.
But most importantly, if an application will suddenly appear on a user's desktop, this may very well occur at a bad time (either because the user simply isn't expecting it, or because you're trying to launch the app when the session isn't quite initialized yet, in the process of shutting down, or whatever).
A more conventional approach would be to put a shortcut to a small client app for your service in the global startup group. This app will then launch along with every user session, and can be used start other apps (if so desired) without any juggling of user credentials, sessions and/or desktops.
Also, this shortcut can be moved/disabled by administrators as desired, which will make deployment of your application much easier, since it doesn't deviate from the standards used by other Windows apps...
The short answer is "You don't", as opening a GUI program running under another user context is a security vulnerability commonly known as a Shatter Attack.
Take a look at this MSDN article: Interactive Services. It gives some options for a service to interact with a user.
In short you have these options:
Display a dialog box in the user's session using the WTSSendMessage function.
Create a separate hidden GUI application and use the CreateProcessAsUser function to run the application within the context of the interactive user. Design the GUI application to communicate with the service through some method of interprocess communication (IPC), for example, named pipes. The service communicates with the GUI application to tell it when to display the GUI. The application communicates the results of the user interaction back to the service so that the service can take the appropriate action. Note that IPC can expose your service interfaces over the network unless you use an appropriate access control list (ACL).
If this service runs on a multiuser system, add the application to the following key so that it is run in each session: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. If the application uses named pipes for IPC, the server can distinguish between multiple user processes by giving each pipe a unique name based on the session ID.
WTSEnumerateSessions and CreateProcessAsUser.
Several people suggested WTSEnumerateSessions and CreateProcessAsUser. I wonder why no one suggested WTSGetActiveConsoleSessionId, since you said you only want to target one logged in user.
Several people sure are right to suggest CreateProcessAsUser though. If you call plain old CreateProcess the way you said, then the application's GUI will run with your service's privileges instead of the user's privileges.
That problems Session 0 , Interactive Services ,
Windows Service Allow Service To Interact With Desktop
on Windows 7 or Windows Vista
You can read this article
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vista-security/SubvertingVistaUAC.aspx
I try explained here it's working on Windows 7
On Win2K, XP and Win2K3 the console user is logged on in Session 0, the same session the services live in. If a service is configured as interactive, it'll be able to show the UI on the user's desktop.
However, on Vista, no user can be logged on in Session 0. Showing UI from a service there is a bit trickier. You need to enumerate the active sessions using WTSEnumerateSessions API, find the console session and create the process as that user. Of course, you need also a token or user credentials to be able to do that. You can read more details about this process here.
I think as long as you have only one user logged in, it will automatically display on that user's desktop.
Anyway, be very careful when having a service start an exe.
If the write access to the folder with the exe is not restricted, any user can replace that exe with any other program, which will then be run with sytem rights. Take for example cmd.exe (available on all windows sytems). The next time the service tries to start your exe, you get a command shell with system rights...
If you launch a GUI from your service it will show up on the currently active desktop.
But only if you adjusted the service permissions: You need to allow it to interact with the desktop.
Important Services cannot directly interact with a user as of Windows Vista. Therefore, the techniques mentioned in the section titled Using an Interactive Service should not be used in new code.
This is taken from : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms683502(VS.85).aspx
I created a windows service that's basically a file watcher that wont run unless a user is logged into the machine its on.
The service is running on a Windows Server 2003 machine. It is designed to listen for excel files in a folder. When there is a excel file, it starts to send some information to a web service. When it's done, it copies the processed file to a archive folder.
Can anyone help me?
Best regards
Baris
Run it as a user that has rights to log on as service on the machine. Make sure this user has an access to the directory you watch.
What i always do in a scenario like that is give the user logon as batch job and logon as a service rights. 1 of these 2 will most likely fix your problem.
You can configure this in the local group policy editor as described here
Be aware though that if your computer is in a domain it is possible that the group policy gets pushed to the server every 15 mins so you might have to talk to a system admin to get things sorted.
When you actually only want to run when someone is logged in, do not use a service but an autostart application in that case.
If you have to be a service because of account privileges, the service may detect the current logins itself, but you may combine a service with a client (autostart) application that connects to the service. That way, you can also show tray incos, status informations and enable the user to control your service using the client application.
Using Win7 and higher, services themselves (running in session 0) can no longer display UI interactions on the user's desktop.
Keep in mind that there may be multiple users logged in on current operating systems...
I have a Windows service which I want to periodically execute an external program. I'm currently doing this the usual way
Process program = Process.Start(#"C:\mpewatch\db_parameters\DBParameters.exe");
This doesn't seem to be working. I'm executing this from a separate thread which is started in my service's OnStart handler. Is there any conceptual problem with this? Is it not possible to execute external programs from a service like this?
You can execute external programs from a service, but there are security issues. For example, your service may be running under an account which does not have read access to the folder where the external program resides, even if your interactive account does have that access.
For test purposes, try to configure the service to run under your interactive account. If the program is invoked as expected, then the problem with the original account is that it does not have sufficient privileges to run the program.
Your question didn't indicate the operating system.
On Windows XP, you can configure your Windows service to interact with the desktop by opening the service control panel, double-clicking your service, selecting the Log On tab, configuring the service to run as local system, and checking the checkbox. It's pretty straightforward. You might try testing with something like Notepad.exe just to see if you can get it working.
On Vista (and presumably Windows 7), however, you may be out of luck. I have read that the ability for Windows services to interact with the desktop has been removed in Vista. I forget what the terminology is, but basically services will run in "shell 0," whereas users will occupy "shell 1". User applications will be able to communicate with services and vice versa using technology like WCF, but services will not be able to communicate directly with the desktop. For example, any error boxes that pop up will have to be dealt with by swapping to "shell 0." Again, this is based on something I read a few months ago, and I haven't gone looking at it again. For me, I've structured my Windows service to be configured using WCF via a front-end app.
I'm sorry I don't have a link for you, but if your service will eventually have to migrate to a newer OS (or you are already there), this is something to check on.
Another critical consideration with Windows Services is that there is no GUI. Technically, there is an option to allow the service to interact with a local GUI, but you will not see it. This is due to services running as the Local System user.
Within a service, any modal dialog box (OK, Cancel, etc) is considered an error.